


How to Love

by queermoraghid (TheDoctorIsIcecube)



Series: Meant to Be [1]
Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst to Fluff, Coming Out, Developing Relationship, Hate to Love, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-03-21 11:48:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 29,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13740243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/queermoraghid
Summary: Jin had known for a long time that his meeting with his soulmate was going to be rocky, what with "do you people seriously think this helps you at all" written on his arm, but he didn't expect Malos to be so rude. He'd never anticipated that his soulmate would hate the idea of a relationship so much.





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Shh, I know it's cheesy and cliche but what with my current solo project (dead parents) and my other collab project (cannibalism) I needed some light relief, so here we have angsty gays!

Jin had often spent time worrying about his soulmate mark. Plenty of people he knew had really normal marks, some had a line of introduction so they could easily find their soulmate… He had ‘do you people seriously think this helps you at all’. It was disheartening, staring at that whenever he wore a t-shirt.

Over the years, he had wondered plenty of times what it meant. What context someone would be telling that to him in. As he had grown up, he had found himself drawn to activism- protests, petitions, whatever he could do to cause a fuss and make a change. He had figured out that that seemed like a good place to find his apparently skeptical soulmate, although he was hoping that they wouldn’t be so skeptical after all. Maybe they’d be saying it to him sarcastically. He really hoped that was the case. 

Honestly, after a while, he completely forgot about worrying about his soulmate all the time. He had a life to live, things he wanted to do, points he wanted to prove. He had lots of essays to write and lots of work to do on almost a daily basis. He couldn’t afford to waste his life away waiting for his soulmate to come to him, after all, and because of that, it took him by surprise.

At this particular protest, Jin was decked out in rainbows and carrying a flag in each hand. There had been a nasty bit of legislation passed recently that he was very keen to protest, as were about three thousand other people. Apparently, this was a great annoyance to the all-black-wearing, moody looking man who smacked right into Jin as he was walking along.

“Ugh… Do you people seriously think this helps you at all?”

Jin’s heart stopped, and for a moment, he didn’t know how to respond. His throat went dry, and he stopped in his tracks. His worst nightmare was coming true; his soulmate started off not even being neutral towards him. “Look, I’ve spent enough of my life dealing with homophobes. Please don’t turn out to be one too.”

The other man froze, and then scowled. “Oh, fuck off. This can’t be happening. Not with- architect, look at you.” He folded his arms. “I’m guessing you know what just happened. And you should know that I am really not happy about this. This is ridiculous!”

Jin stepped out of the way of all the people marching. Honestly...this couldn’t be happening. Not like this. He had spent so long imagining how he was going to meet his soulmate but he’d never imagined that he was going to tell him to fuck off. “I don’t want it to be like this,” he said.

“Me neither. I’ve spent my whole life wondering who would be stupid enough to call me a homophobe when I’m-” He cut himself off, and his scowl got even deeper. “Never mind. I can’t be seen here, talking to- someone like you.” He took a piece of paper out of his pocket, scribbling something down on it. “It seems stupid not to give my soulmate my phone number, but don’t text me until tonight. I mean it.”

“I- thank you,” he managed. He couldn’t get over the overwhelming disappointment that this was who he’d ended up with. He was so rude, so sharp with him, and Architect, Jin didn’t even know his name and he was about to walk off with only a scrap of paper. “I’m Jin,” he said. “I’ll, ah, text you later.”

“Malos,” he said, his voice barely more than a growl, and he stalked off, still glaring at the people marching. Jin sighed deeply and started walking, pulling his phone out of his pocket to register the number immediately. How was he even going to recover their relationship from...this?

He glanced at the flags he’d dropped on the floor, and sighed. His protesting zeal for the day had been decidedly crushed, and now he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. Go home and scream into a pillow, perhaps. His first interaction with his soulmate could not possibly have gone worse. But at the same time, he still wanted to keep going. His stupid soulmate was getting on with his life, why shouldn’t he do exactly what he’d been doing before? If he was seen leaving the protest, he had no idea what that would do to the morale of all the people he’d pass. What would it look like for the image of the march as a whole? This was more important than some arsehole who didn’t want to talk to him yet. 

With a sigh, Jin picked up his flags and walked back into the march. Perhaps this would at least distract him from the mysterious, moody Malos. Come to think of it, his face was familiar. Jin couldn’t quite place it at the moment, though. Picking up his pace a little, he made his way back to Akhos to tell him what had happened.

“You look miserable as sin, anything particularly queer just happen to you?” Akhos asked him as soon as he came into earshot, and then he started cackling. Jin managed to crack a smile.

“I just met my soulmate,” he said, sounding not very happy about it at all. “He told me to fuck off, then gave me his phone number and told me not to text him until tonight. Architect, he’s not even the sort of guy I even like. He has more muscles than me.”

Akhos looked at Jin and laughed. “Wow,” he said. He clearly didn’t know what to say. “I’m not sure if that’s an insult to my own physique or not.” He probably then picked up on how not ready to joke about this he was. “Maybe he was just in a hurry and we were in his way?”

“Yeah, maybe. He seemed angry. Fuck knows what I did to offend him. He’s the one who literally walked right into me and then snapped at me.” Jin sighed. Why couldn’t his soulmate have been at least a bit nicer? Why couldn’t it have been someone like Akhos? They’d dated for a while a couple of years ago, and it had been fine. Nice, even. And now his soulmate was some moody asshole who wouldn’t give him the time of day. 

“Try not to think about it,” Akhos suggested. “The time wasn’t right. He’ll probably be nicer when you text him. If not, send him a picture of your dick. Your soulmate is probably programmed to respond to that.” 

“I am not sending my arse of a soulmate a dick pic,” he said immediately. He could tell that Akhos was just trying to cheer him up, and damn it if it wasn’t working.

“How about you send him your arse instead? Attach a caption, say it’s because he’s an arse.” Akhos grinned. “I bet he’d love that.”

“Shut up…” Jin half-heartedly swatted Akhos in the face with the larger of his two flags. “He looked kinda familiar. I bet if I look him up he’ll turn out to be some capitalist scumbag I’ve protested against in the past.”

“If anyone can turn a capitalist scumbag gay, it’s you,” Akhos said, gently clapping Jin on the shoulder. “Chin up, we’ve got a performance to put on for these dicks prescribing things from Indol. You can worry about your soulmate later, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, turning to face forward again. Protesting was something he could do. Dealing with a terrible soulmate could wait until he was at home in bed with a warm drink in his hand.


	2. Talking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jin finally gets to talk to Malos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gotta love it when no one likes your fic :) :) ah well, it's not a popular ship like some of the others in this fandom.

Jin didn’t get home until eight in the evening, and by that point, he was just about ready to pass out. But the thought of finally texting his soulmate was enough to keep him going long enough to make a cup of tea and charge his phone. Maybe Malos would have had a change of heart since this morning, and turn out to be a decent person. 

‘Hey, it’s Jin,’ he texted, but he didn’t send it. That wasn’t the right way to go about it. He didn’t want to look too keen or to repeat himself. Malos already had a bad opinion of him. He deleted the text and then wrote something else out. ‘Hope it’s not too early to text you.’ No, no, that was all wrong too. This was so difficult.

He put his phone down and focused on the tea instead, hoping that inspiration would strike him. It did not. After five minutes of languishing, he muttered ‘fuck it’ and picked up the phone again. ‘It’s Jin from earlier, can we talk now?’. That sounded okay, and before he could doubt himself, he sent it.

It only took a couple of minutes for his phone to buzz again, but that whole time his heart was racing. For a moment, he didn’t even want to look at Malos’ response. Eventually he forced himself to open the text. ‘Yeah we can talk now’. No punctuation, no emojis, just a flat response. Not very encouraging. But Jin didn’t lose heart.

‘When we met earlier, why were you so hostile? Pretty sure meeting your soulmate is supposed to be happy.’ He might as well just get straight to the point. No sense in talking around it. 

‘It was too public,’ he said. ‘I was in a hurry and I didn’t want anyone to see that.’

Jin frowned at that. What kind of person had he ended up with for a soulmate if he didn’t want anyone to know that he had a soulmate in the first place? ‘I guess I understand. I wasn’t really expecting it to happen like that’

‘Me neither. I can’t be seen with a man in public, so don’t expect many dates.’ That got another frown. Really? Malos seemed awfully self-important. What could he possibly do that was so dangerous and likely to be ruined just by being seen dating a man? They were soulmates, it wasn’t like they really had a choice. 

‘Maybe that’s not the best way to start this off,’ he said. He hoped that would maybe gain an apology from the man. Saying something like that straight off the bat didn’t bode well for the rest of their relationship...especially as their relationship was meant to be a lifetime together. ‘Maybe give me a chance first.’

‘I’m talking to you now. Even this is more than I am comfortable with. You should look me up, maybe then you’ll understand why I can’t be seen with you in public.’ Jin got the sense that Malos was purposely making things difficult for himself. If he really wanted to be with his soulmate, he wouldn’t whine about how impossible it was. But maybe he was wrong, so he rolled his eyes, closed his messages, and typed Malos’ name into his search engine. 

Ah. Jin now understood why Malos was being careful with his image. He headed up Torna, the fancy protest party that half the people he knew voted for. That explained a lot, but...surely that didn’t mean he couldn’t be gay. Why would that be such a barrier?

‘My gay friends vote for you,’ he texted back. ‘They’d be thrilled to find out your soulmate was a man.’ They’d be thrilled to find out it was Jin, too. He would find himself bombarded with policy suggestions to give to Malos if they ever went public as a couple. And it was seeming like a very big ‘if’ at the moment, what with how moody Malos was being. 

‘Don’t tell ANYONE,’ Malos texted back. That was immediate. ‘I swear I will not take this relationship any further if you tell anyone about this. I don’t want my private life to form any part of my politics, they’re completely separate.’

Well, then. Jin wasn’t sure if he should mention that Akhos already sort of knew. He probably shouldn’t. But what he should, and did, do, was open up Malos’ contact page and change his name to ‘Moody Malos’. That seemed more accurate. ‘I won’t tell anyone,’ he promised. ‘You don’t seem much like you want to date me, to be honest. Am I not your type?’ 

‘Men aren’t my type,’ he said. Jin only snorted at that. They were literal soulmates; he was definitely Malos’ type, and even if he wasn’t what Malos considered his type, he definitely could not be straight. ‘I don’t date men.’

‘But do you WANT to date men? Even secretly?’ Jin knew that the answer to that should be a yes, unless Malos was still neck-deep in denial. ‘Honestly, you're not my type, either. The last three people I dated were skinny arts students. You have more muscles than I do, and it’s unnerving.’ He was mostly joking. Hopefully Malos picked up on that. He probably wouldn’t. The man seemed to have the sense of humour of a dead squirrel.

‘I’m not going to discuss dating yet, we only met today.’ Well, at least it wasn’t a flat out no. ‘You’re not the type of person I’d ever imagine myself going for, but I’m not going to rule everything out on the spot. I’m willing to get to know you outside of talking about a romantic relationship.’

They were soulmates, so in Jin’s opinion it seemed silly not to just go ahead and start making out with each other as soon as possible, but arguing with Malos seemed like it would be a futile endeavour. ‘Fine by me,’ he sent. ‘What do you want to know about me?’

‘Well the only thing I know about you is your name and that you’re gay,’ Malos said. Jin just grinned. He’d sort of always wanted someone to say that kind of thing to him. ‘Do you have a job? How old are you, even?’

'I'm 22, and I don't have a job currently,' Jin texted back. He'd been fired from his last job, actually. It was no fault of his own. Jin knew his manager just hadn't liked all the protests he went to. 'How old are you?'

'You could definitely just look that up,' Malos said. 'I'm 25, though.' Jin had never dated someone that much older than him before, either, but it wasn't a very big gap seeing as they were both adults. Maybe he was just worrying about it excessively.

'You wanted to make conversation,' he pointed out. This was not getting them very far. Malos was too standoffish to talk to nicely. 'Will you be able to text every night?'

'Most days,' he wrote. 'I work from home a fair amount. It was just today that I was busy and I didn't need a mysterious number popping up on my phone when I was in a meeting.'

'I see.' Malos was being a little more considerate now, but his whole insistence on secrecy still bothered Jin. They were soulmates, for architect's sake. If anyone should be acceptable company in public for Malos, it should be the person he was literally fated to spend the rest of his life with.

'Do you live in the city?' Malos asked. Well, at least he was actually trying to learn more about him.

'Most of the time,' he said. 'I have a friend who invites me to spend holidays in Indol sometimes but I don't think I'll be getting a visa to go back there any time soon.'

'If you really want one, I can help with that.' Huh, that was surprisingly nice, considering what Jin knew about Malos so far. He was about to ask how, but clarification came without prompting. 'I have some sway with the Praetor. Don't ask how.'

'Well I got kicked out for shouting at monks,' he said. 'I don't think they want to let me back in.' He didn't mention that he told the monks that their supposed Architect was an arse if he supported the Praetorium, and he didn't ask why the leader of an anti religious party had influence with the Praetor. He felt like he'd probably be safer if he didn't know.

'I won't ask why you were shouting at the monks. I can probably guess.' That was fair enough. Jin felt like his first meeting with Malos had probably given Malos enough information about him to know the motivations behind most things he did. Jin, on the other hand, was still almost clueless about Malos.

'It was actually more that I told them they had a false god,' he said, which was probably not what Malos was expecting. 'I wouldn't imagine that you like Indol much either though.'

'You would imagine correctly.' No great surprise there. From what little Jin knew about Torna, they were furiously anti-Indol. He didn't much concern himself with their politics, usually, but he supposed that now he might have to start paying a little bit more attention.

'Mostly I'm curious.' The next text from Malos came through before Jin could send a response. 'I'm not outright going to try and convert you or anything, but what kind of politics do you support? Your kind of crowd is usually big on Torna.'

'Torna's interesting, and you have the right ideas. But realistically you're never going to get anything done, not enough people follow you. I usually vote for the most liberal party that actually has a chance of winning.' As far as Jin remembered, Torna hadn't even been around for that long. They'd popped up a few years ago, and attracted the entire anarchist crowd quickly enough that they'd managed to stay semi-relevant.

'Can't blame you for that,' he said. Even a message like that gave Jin a lot of hope for what was to come. Maybe he and Malos had managed to get off on the wrong foot and Malos was actually pretty nice. Now, he seemed perfectly civil and maybe even slightly pleasant.

'Thanks. If you ever get more popular, you have my vote :)' Jin didn't know how Malos felt about emoji, but now felt like the right time to send one. Things seemed to be going well.

'That emoji offends my eyes :/' Malos said. Jin was pretty sure what was sarcastic, considering the emoji used there. Seems Malos actually had a sense of humour, too.

'You're such a charmer, I may swoon <3' It was probably fairly obvious that that was sarcastic, but it was fun. Jin liked this more playful teasing- it was much better than feeling like he wasn't wanted. Maybe Akhos would be right and he WOULD end up sending his soulmate a dick pic tonight.

'Ah shit I just remembered,' Malos said, and Jin was about to text him back when he got another text. 'Actually never mind. I don't need to yet. Ignore that, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.'

'What?' Jin frowned, mildly concerned that he had managed to do something wrong. Had he managed to offend Malos in some way, perhaps?

'Don't worry about it, nothing you did,' he said. 'It's not relevant at the moment, it'll be fine.'

'If it's your oven you left on, don't burn to death on my account ;)' Jin texted back. Maybe the winky face was a bit too much. Maybe not.

'It's not my oven. Trust me, even the prospect of you flirting with me more isn't enough to make me want to burn alive.' Jin wasn't sure if he should take that as a compliment or an insult to his flirting skills. Really, it could be read either way.

'Not used to men flirting with you? ;)' That probably was overstepping the line, but damn it Jin needed to know where the line was.

'I have a degree, I've been to uni, I've had plenty of men flirt with me.'

'Not sure your degree has anything to do with it. The muscles might, or your sense of style. No straight man pulls off punk like that.' Despite his apprehension about all this flirting, Jin found himself smiling. Malos was his soulmate. They were meant to fit together, and he was starting to see why, just a little.

'At least it's subtle, unlike the gay hobo look you're apparently going for,' Malos said. Jin grinned at that. Gay hobo was exactly what he was going for.

'You flatterer. I think I look especially 'gay hobo' at the moment, there's smudged rainbows on my face and my hair looks like I haven't brushed it in weeks.' That was just the effect that going to a protest had on you, honestly.

'Do you always wear gay themed makeup?' Malos asked.

'I actually don't usually wear makeup at all,' he said. 'It's too much effort to wash off and I don't have any aptitude for putting it on. The most I can do is bad teenage eyeliner.'

'I'd pay to see that...' Jin laughed at that, idly wondering if he still had any eyeliner lying around. He would appreciate making Malos smile. 

'How much would you pay?' he teased.

'It was a joke,' came the immediate response. 'I won't pay to see shitty makeup. I see enough bad teenage eyeliner every time I do an official meeting in public.'

'I can only imagine.' So many followers of Torna were angry teenagers, most of whom dressed exactly like Malos but pulled the look off way worse. 'I will spare you my bad makeup, then.'

'You're not so bad, you know,' Malos said. 'I thought you'd be the most insufferable social justice person ever but you're okay. I guess I'm sorry for being rude before.'

'Thank you. You're not nearly as rude as I thought you were, either.' Jin smiled to himself. Maybe he'd been a little bit quick to judge. He felt sort of warm inside now. His soulmate was nice and they were sort of friends. He hadn't imagined this was how his day was going to be, and earlier he had wished it had come in some other way, but now he was happy with how things had turned out.


	3. Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malos and Jin have their first proper conversation.

Jin did not want to be here. Malos had made things pretty clear; he couldn’t see Jin in person, he didn’t want to ruin his reputation. But Mikhail had asked Jin to come with him to this damned conference thing, and he couldn’t say no without seeming suspicious. He didn’t even normally go to stuff like this, but Mik didn’t have anyone else to go with and Jin hated letting people go to this kind of thing on their own. It wasn’t safe to go on your own to places where you might get attacked or arrested.

So now here he was, awkwardly sitting in the second row of seats at some official Torna...thing. He’d sent Malos a text to let him know about the situation, but that wasn’t enough to make him feel any more comfortable. Malos had also not been happy, sending only a terse ‘Don’t even look at me if you can help it.’ That had made Jin’s stomach turn, but he couldn’t exactly back out. He wanted to be here for Mik, he just...didn’t want to be here if it made things awkward for Malos.

When Malos walked out to speak, Jin felt his heart leap a little bit. He couldn’t help it. He tried to do as he’d been told and look away, but it was difficult. That was his soulmate talking, it was impossible not to stare a little. Every time he did look, Malos would look at him too, and Jin would hastily glance away again. 

Malos was really hot, damn it, and he was a very charismatic speaker. He was so easy and he said everything with so much conviction. It was incredibly hard not to just swoon every time he heard him speak, honestly. He didn’t look half bad dressed fairly smartly, either. Jin had dressed up in a nice shirt for this event, even though at least half of the people here were teenagers with the same shitty eyeliner Malos had been complaining about over text. It might be his imagination, but he swore he could feel Malos staring at him right back sometimes.

The event was...something to do with the party’s policy on Urayan activities. Honestly, Jin wasn’t following it all that well because he was focusing so much on not looking at Malos too much. He also kept keeping an eye out for people making a disturbance, seeing as that was why he’d actually agreed to come. Thankfully, nothing too serious actually happened, other than a couple of teenagers getting in a scuffle at the back of the room. It almost came as a surprise when the talk ended, Jin had been so focused on avoiding eye contact with Malos. 

As people started filing out of the hall, Jin checked his phone. There was a text from Malos. ‘Do you want to call me later? We can’t meet properly now, there are too many people.’ Jin smiled at the text. He hadn’t been hoping to get to actually see Malos, but the prospect of getting to speak to him verbally was at once exciting and nerve-wracking.

‘Unless you want to sneakily meet up in the toilets, that sounds perfect.’ Clandestine meetings in toilet cubicles seemed a little bit cliche, really. And gross. Jin didn’t even want to think about how many germs would be passed if two people kissed in a public toilet. 

‘I definitely do not want to sneakily meet up in the toilets,’ Malos said. ‘Public toilets are hellspawn.’ Jin tried not to snort on seeing that, because he didn’t want Mikhail to think anything was different. He wasn’t scared of people knowing he’d found his soulmate, but he was worried that if people found out, they’d pry, and then his chances would be ruined.

‘I’ll call you at 10pm tonight, if that’s okay?’ After that, he didn’t get a response from Malos for a while, and when he did, it was just a thumbs-up emoji. He was probably busy doing conference-y things right now, so Jin didn’t blame him.

Now he might properly get to speak to Malos. He heard him speak at him, and they’d exchanged a few angry words, but actually having a conversation with him was something else entirely. He wondered what it would be like. Would they get along? Would he get to hear Malos laughing? He’d laughed a little as part of his speech, but that wasn’t real laughter. Jin wanted to hear something just for him, something that wasn’t forced for an audience. He wanted Malos to himself.

Once they were clear of the area, he and Mikhail split up and he made his way home. He didn’t live too far from where the meeting had been held and it was barely even dark yet, so everything was safe, but he was still apprehensive about walking alone. He didn’t feel so safe out in this city when he wasn’t surrounded by police and whole groups of other people. Not that he couldn’t handle a single attacker, but groups would probably be harder to deal with.

It was a relief to finally get home and out of the cold, and Jin wasted no time in getting up to his room and shutting the door. He had a few hours before he could safely call Malos, but they were going to be a long few hours. He’d never felt so antsy in his life. An actual conversation with his soulmate…

The hours stretched by and Malos only texted him occasionally. He was managing his social media stuff, he said, so he couldn’t talk much. Social media was probably absolutely impossible to manage when you were someone so high profile. Jin idly wondered if he could find some of this social media stuff. It ought not to be too hard, right? Malos was well known, his accounts ought to be pretty public. And even if there wasn’t anything all that interesting on a public page, maybe Jin would be able to find a few nice photos to look at. 

He checked one website, and he couldn’t view Malos’ profile at all. He checked another one, and it said that that Malos didn’t exist. He checked a third and it said that he’d ‘been blocked by this account’. He frowned. Malos had blocked him from all his social media. That was...unexpected. And not a very pleasant surprise. Jin sighed. They’d been getting along so well, and now...this. Something to bring up when they called each other, and something to get angry about if necessary. Jin slumped back in his chair, feeling a little deflated. 

He didn’t really know how to deal with this. They’d been fine earlier. They’d been completely fine, even happy. He didn’t know if he wanted to call Malos anymore, even. Maybe he should just say that he was tired. Maybe he should just ask Malos about it now.

Then his phone rang. Jin glanced up at the clock on the wall- it was ten past ten. Oops. He eyed it momentarily, debating whether or not to answer, and then scowled and snatched up his phone. “Hello. Why am I blocked on all of your social media accounts?” 

“Ah.” That was the only response Malos could dignify him with, apparently. He didn’t say anything for several moments. “It’s- I acted on impulse a couple of days ago. I didn’t want you popping up on anything I have. Now I realise it doesn’t really matter.”

“I see.” Jin paused.”...Could you unblock me, then? Unless there’s something you don’t want me to see.” That was probably unfair. But he felt like he had the right to be a little moody after finding out that his literal soulmate had blocked him on basically every website on the internet. 

“I can,” he said. “Sorry. I just- why were you looking me up, anyway? You can just, you know, talk to me. You don’t have to stalk me online.”

“If you’re asking me why I looked you up, why did you have me blocked already?” He asked, a small smile on his face that he hoped carried over to his voice. 

“That’s a fair point.” Jin thought he could hear just the tiniest touch of amusement in Malos’ voice. That was...surprisingly nice. “Let’s change the subject, shall we? Tell me- what did you think of my speech? I caught you staring a few times…” 

“Maybe I wasn’t listening,” he teased. “I mean, I was there to make sure my friend was okay. Events like that tend to get violent sometimes. But it was good. I’m sure if you need an ego inflation there are plenty of people raving about you online right now.”

“Alright, so I want to boost my ego. But I want you to do it. I know you liked my speech. Or at least my voice, if you genuinely weren’t listening.” Malos laughed then, just for a moment. Jin felt a very distinct flutter in his stomach. Damn it, he liked this guy. Why was he so attractive?

“Fine, I thought it was great and I liked listening to you,” he said. “Is that enough ego boosting for you?” He couldn’t stop smiling. This was exactly what he’d hoped for from a soulmate, honestly. He didn’t need a relationship just yet.

“Mm. For now. I like hearing you compliment me, though.” Malos was definitely flirting with him, and it was working far too well for Jin’s liking. He was not the sort of person who blushed and giggled. He was usually the one doing the flirting. 

“You’re pretty good at flirting for someone who initially came off as so cold,” he said. He wished he was seeing Malos in person because he didn’t think Malos would be able to stay so cool if he could drop a wink in there. “I need to step up my game.”

“You do. I don’t feel even slightly inclined to swoon into your arms yet.” Another soft laugh. Jin had been right- Malos’ laugh sounded completely different when he wasn’t just faking it for the public. It was so much nicer. “Go on, then, wow me with your seduction skills.” 

“Well I can’t think of anything now, can I?” He said, desperately trying to think of something. “My friend told me to send you a picture of my dick.”  
Jin heard Malos splutter on the other side of the phone, and he grinned. “Please don’t send me a dick pic.”

“Aww, what a shame. I had one all ready to go.” Jin heard Malos splutter again, and he laughed. “I’m joking. But I bet I’ve now managed to make you way more flustered than you made me.” 

“Maybe I’ll send you a picture of my dick to make you properly flustered,” Malos said. Jin felt his face heat up with embarrassment. That was...not the kind of thing he wanted just yet. “Not a fan? That’s a shame.”

“Give me a few weeks and ask again,” Jin said, doing his best to sound composed. “I still barely know you, remember. No one’s dick is so good-looking that it’s worth seeing without at least knowing that I like the person first.” Not that that excuse worked very well when they were literally soulmates. Ah well. 

“Somehow your reasoning doesn’t quite hold up there,” Malos said, “but I’ll refrain from sending you explicit pictures for now.” Jin was pretty sure that the ‘for now’ was accompanied by eyebrow wiggling that he couldn’t see. The image of Malos wiggling his eyebrows was enough to make him giggle.

“Thank you. Um…” With the subject of social media and this awkward sideline about dick pics over, Jin wasn’t sure what else to talk about. He hardly knew anything about Malos’ personal life, and he wasn’t sure how to ask about it without being weird. 

“What do you do?” Malos asked. “You said you don’t have a job right now. Presumably you don’t sit around doing nothing all the time.”

“I’m doing my master’s,” he said. “I’m not sure what I’m doing with it, but I didn’t have anything else to do. I just wanted to do more studying.”

“More studying? You’re a strange man, Jin. Although I suppose I’m not one to talk when it comes to strangeness.” Malos laughed softly. “Anyway...what are you studying? I can’t tell from looking at you…” 

“I’d think you did something like Psychology, you look like that kind of person,” Jin said.

“Philosophy and Indoline,” Malos said. “I studied in the out of town uni for a bit and transferred to the city for my second year. So, what do you do?”

“History. I like to know about my past. Hold on, though- you studied Indoline? Why?”

“It’s really not important.” Again, Malos brushing off strange connections to the Praetorium. It really was suspicious, but Jin couldn’t be bothered to follow up on it now. “History sounds like just your thing. What’s that, Aegis War stuff?”

“Ugh, I am so done with studying the Aegis War,” Jin said. “I have done so many modules on that war. I usually just see what I can do to dig into Indol putting their noses in everything they shouldn’t. That’s, ah, another reason I’m not allowed into the country.”

“Wow. They must really hate you. Is there anything you haven’t done to piss them off?” Malos laughed. Jin thought about it. Short of actually assassinating someone important, there really wasn’t a lot that he hadn’t done. 

“I, ah...I don’t think I’ve ever stolen from someone in Indol,” he managed. He’d done plenty of other things to make himself into a nuisance, though, and he’d done it all gladly. “But I think I’ve been arrested there a good six times. If I don’t get arrested on a trip to Indol, that’s a failure of a trip.”

“Wow, you’re really not the dainty wet blanket I thought you were when I saw you first,” Malos said.

“You thought I was a ‘dainty wet blanket’?” Jin scoffed. “I’m pretty sure people of that description don’t look like I do. And they probably don’t protest like I do, either. If you’re going to know anything about me, I am absolutely not dainty. Or a wet blanket.” 

“I mean, protesting like that. It’s just a march, and you wear rainbows. Half the people in those kinds of things are just kids. The government don’t pay attention to tiny things like that from people with almost no political power. That’s why I said what I did.”

“If you’d rather I was punching people in the face, or throwing paint at people, or whatever else people do to protest, I’ve done that too. That doesn’t get you anywhere, either. At least playing things peacefully won’t get you arrested. And it gets the public on our side. The more public opinion starts to change, the more chance we have of pressure being put on Indol to change the law.” 

“Are you sure about that, though?” Malos asked. Jin didn’t really like having an argument-type discussion like this, but there wasn’t any malice in the man’s words. “To me, it doesn’t look like public opinion is moving all that much, and a vocal minority doesn’t change anything. There will always be the silent conservative majority.”

“Minority influence is a powerful thing. Give us a few years…” Jin hated how slowly things were going, too. He had just learned to accept that there wasn’t a lot he could do about it. Malos didn’t seem to have gotten that message yet. 

“And how long have you been waiting for that time in just a few years?” Malos asked. “And how much longer will you wait? Ten years? More? While the rights of the people you’re trying to represent just keep sliding backwards? These kinds of things need a spark and then they need to gather momentum.”

“A spark,” Jin said doubtfully. He was aware that this was sounding dangerously like an argument; that he probably shouldn’t be arguing with his soulmate, but- this was too important to let go. “What sort of a spark, hmm?” 

“Some kind of breakthrough in legislation,” Malos said. “Or something that proves that you deserve more. I don’t engage in those kinds of debates, they’re all social rather than economic and political, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you any specifics.”

“Hmm. Maybe don’t argue your point so strongly if you can’t give me the details. Let’s just...change the subject for now, perhaps.” They clearly weren’t going to get anywhere with this debate, and Jin didn’t want to anger Malos too much. 

“I, ah, we’ve actually talked for quite a while,” Malos said. “I need to go to sleep and all.” Jin glanced at the clock. It really was getting late. “I get that you wouldn’t want to leave the conversation on that though. Let’s just give it a couple more minutes and then we could both go to bed and leave this to another day.”

“Alright…” Jin trailed off, momentarily struck for what to talk about. After an argument like that, his brain needed a little time to recover. “Ah...what are you doing tomorrow? Something important and political, I expect?” 

“Working from home tomorrow,” Malos said. “Social media stuff, emails, organisation...mostly all boring, but it’s less high stress than all the stuff with going out in public. Disaster tends to follow me in public.”

“You’re working from home?” That had certainly caught Jin’s interest. “If you’re going to be at home all day...perhaps I could keep you company? Relieve a little of that boredom?” The answer would probably be no, but it was worth a shot.

“I could call you again,” he said. “But I don’t...I don’t really want you being seen entering my house. Sometimes press people sit around outside and try and report on my private life. It’s not safe for either of us.”

“You really need to make the back door of your house more accessible. Or just get a restraining order on whoever thinks it’s acceptable to just sit on your lawn.” Jin sighed. “Or perhaps you could just punch them. You seemed quite keen on that as a mode of action earlier.” 

“It’s a bit different when it’s the press,” Malos said. “I’m not keen on sucking up to them or anything, but having a good public image has its benefits. If you get annoyed at them they just pester you more and more until you snap at them and they have a great smear story to write. Also I can’t go to court, I’d almost definitely get arrested while trying to prosecute.”

“Looks like your only option is to work on that back door, then. Or, you could just admit that I’m your soulmate.” Things were sliding a little too close to argument territory again, so Jin quickly made an effort to try and pull things back. “But let’s not worry about that now. You can call me again tomorrow, that’s fine.” 

“Yeah, I don’t really want to discuss all that now,” he said. He didn’t sound so friendly and happy anymore. Jin wanted to work past that issue and be able to be with Malos, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen any time soon. “It’s been nice talking to you, though.”

“It has. I’m sorry if I offended you in some way…” Jin wasn’t all that sorry, really, but it seemed worth pretending if it made Malos a little less hostile. Jin much preferred the friendlier side of him. 

“It’s okay,” he said. “I know where you’re coming from. Just be patient. Just because I’m your soulmate doesn’t mean I’m going to bend over backwards for us to be together instantly. These things take time, and I hope you’re happy to take that time.”

“I am. As long as things do move along, I don’t much mind how long it takes.” Jin found himself wondering if Malos intended for this to end up in a relationship at all, but he forced those thoughts away. They were soulmates, it would work out.


	4. Chance Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jin accidentally meets Malos and it doesn't go as he wanted it to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Architect bless snow days for giving me lots of time to write :)

A week later, Jin found himself in the city library. He had a degree to get, after all, and that didn’t come without a fair amount of research. He had an armful of books to read- this would take him all afternoon, probably. In all honesty, he was looking forward to the quiet. 

Barely looking where he was going, he made his way over to one of the seats where he could cross his legs and prop his laptop up next to him and lean against the wall. This was the best way to read comfortably and he always sat-- he bumped into someone, the books flying out of his hands with the force of the impact.

“What the--” He stopped himself, remembering that he was in a library. The books were his first priority, and then he glanced up to see just about the last face he had expected in a public library in the middle of the day. Malos. 

His eyes widened, and as they did Jin saw an utter look of shock on Malos’ face. For a moment, his heart stopped. Seeing Malos personally again was a surprise he hadn’t expected. He didn’t quite know how to respond. He couldn’t work out whether he should do something or just ignore Malos and pick up his books and move on. What was he doing here? Jin had so many questions, but even his two word outburst a moment ago had earned him several irritated glares. 

Not taking his eyes off of Malos, Jin set his books down safely in a pile and made a ‘what’s going on’ gesture with his hands. How Malos was going to explain himself without words, he had no idea. But they were soulmates. Surely it couldn’t be that hard. Malos just made the same gesture back at him, but with extra eyebrow gesturing (Malos had really nice eyebrows). Jin pulled off his coat and placed it where he was planning to sit and put his books on top of it, and then looked towards the door. He didn’t know if Malos would be willing to talk to him right now, but it was worth a try.

Malos looked towards the door as well, scowled, and then shrugged. He turned away, heading towards the door. Perfect. Jin lingered a couple of seconds and then followed him, figuring that Malos would probably kick up a fuss if he tried to walk next to him. He hoped Malos wouldn’t be too rude about this… It was clearly an accident.

“Why are you here?” Malos snapped as soon as they were both outside.

“I’m reading,” he said simply. “It’s not unusual that a graduate student can be found in a library.”

“Right at the same time I’m here?” Malos was still scowling. Honestly, Jin wished he could just take things a little less seriously. 

“I come here most days.” Jin folded his arms. “Why are you here?” 

“Surprise surprise, I came to borrow a book,” he said. “And then you just walked straight into me and had to make a big deal about it. Why can’t you just be content to ignore me when I’m in a room? It’s not some amazing incredible thing that I exist in the same place as you.”

“I always sit there,” Jin snapped. “I wasn’t expecting to bump into you, and I was surprised because you don’t seem like the sort of person who frequents a library. You sound as though you think I’m stalking you or something. Calm down. If you’re that desperate to be ignored, we can just go back inside and do whatever we were doing.” 

“You’re the person who suggested we come outside,” he said.

“Only because we can’t talk inside.” Jin didn’t want to argue like this. He wanted both of them to just get on. But Malos seemed to make everything into a problem. “And you didn’t have to come out here, you could have just ignored me and stayed inside.”

“But now we’re out here, in public, where anyone could see us, arguing like a couple of children.” Jin hadn’t known it was possible for Malos to look any angrier, but he was managing it now. “It’s your fault. This is ridiculous.” 

“I just thought you’d want to talk. There aren’t people following you around here. No one is here specifically to judge you. But we can ignore all this if you really want to.” Jin tried not to show how disappointed he was by this. He didn’t need Malos knowing how upset this made him. They were meant to be made for each other.

“I’m going back inside. Don’t follow me right away.” Malos stalked off, and Jin clenched his fists and resisted the urge to punch a wall. His soulmate was a stubborn, stuck-up asshole and there was absolutely nothing that he could do about it. They’d spoken and he’d been perfectly nice when Jin wasn’t actually right there in front of him. Was it something about the way he looked? Was there something about him in person that made him inherently unlikeable?

Jin felt on the verge of tears. He didn’t really want to go back into the library at all, knowing that Malos was in there, still seething. Angry that Jin even existed in the same place as him. Jin just...didn’t know how to deal with that. But he had to, so he dug his fingers into his palms so hard that they were probably bleeding and he walked back into the library. Malos had taken up a seat right next to where Jin had left his books. Jin gritted his teeth, moved his pile of books, and sat down next to Malos. Not sparing him one glance, Jin picked up his first book and started reading. 

It was surprisingly easy to get lost in his book, though every few pages he’d get distracted with the knowledge that his soulmate was right there next to him, completely ignoring him. He finished the first chapter he needed to read and switched books, and then kept reading. Jin could tell that, every ten minutes or so, Malos shifted and looked up at Jin. Jin was very happy to just ignore him. He wouldn’t give Malos the satisfaction of completely ruining his day.

He had been reading for about two hours when Malos stood up, gave a frustrated-sounding sigh, and walked off. Jin didn’t bother glancing up to check where he was going. A minute later, his phone buzzed.

‘Meet me in the bathroom.’ Jin raised an eyebrow. He distinctly remembered Malos saying something about meeting in bathrooms being childish.

‘In a minute,’ he sent back. He wanted to finish the paragraph, at least, and Malos could wait, especially seeing as he’d been so rude to him before. That had been downright hurtful and honestly it was just unreasonable. Once he was done, he placed his bookmark in the book and made his way over to the bathrooms.

Malos was lingering half-in and half-out of a stall at the end of the bathroom. Jin watched him for a moment, allowing himself to feel some sense of superiority. He felt he deserved that much after Malos’ outburst. “...You wanted to see me?” 

“You sound like you’re a kid being called here by a teacher or something,” Malos said. “I don’t know, I- I was annoyed earlier because it was so unexpected. I said it because I was angry. I guess I’m- I’m sorry. For being rude to you.”

“Huh.” Jin wasn’t sure that one little ‘I’m sorry’ was going to make much of a dent in all of Malos’ bullshit, but at least it was a start. “Thanks. It’s going to take a bit more grovelling before I feel much better, but we can work on that.”

“I’m not a big fan of grovelling,” Malos said. “I’ll retain my pride. But- I guess- I could visit you or something. When you’re next free, that is. And we could get to know each other a bit better than the political talk and arguments we’ve had.”

“Sounds good. How about tomorrow night?” Jin could call in a few favours from his housemates to get them to leave him alone for the evening, and then he and Malos would be free to do whatever they wanted.

“That sounds good,” he said. Malos looked almost...nervous, honestly. He looked nervous about saying this, which was strange, because Jin didn’t know many people who were more self assured than Malos. “I imagine you want to get back to your reading now.”

“That would be good. I do have quite a lot to do…” Jin trailed off, trying to judge when it would be acceptable to walk off. He offered a smile to Malos and, without thinking, took Malos’ hand in his for an instant. Before either of them could say anything, he pulled his hand away and walked off. He heard Malos follow him a few moments later. Neither of them said anything more.


	5. Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malos and Jin get a chance to spend an evening together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally forgot to post this yesterday because I started replaying XC2 with the update, oops! :)

Jin found himself uncharacteristically nervous the next evening. He had indeed managed to get all of his housemates out of the way, which just left him, and an empty, messy house that he didn’t have enough time to clean. His housemates were hopeless in cleaning things and he only had one space to himself, his bedroom, which...honestly wasn’t much better than the rest of the house. He didn’t have dirty clothes on the floor, but that was about all he could say for the state of his room, and it wasn’t like his room was even big enough for the two of them to do anything without sitting on the bed.

Jin didn’t even know what they were planning on doing this evening. He hadn’t mentioned anything to Malos and Malos hadn’t suggested anything either. Did he even have enough food in the house to feed both of them?

At exactly seven, the doorbell rang. Jin supposed he had to appreciate Malos’ timekeeping skills. He answered the door, only to be greeted by Malos wearing a hooded jacket that almost totally obscured his face. Of course. Malos immediately hurried in and Jin closed the door after him. “Evening,” Malos said, pulling his hood back. “All your housemates are gone?”

“Yep,” Jin said with a smile. “Gone until at least midnight, they said.”

“So, you’ve got us alone together in your house? Could be fun.” Malos glanced around, and Jin did his best not to draw too much attention to the mess. “Nice place. So… How do we spend the night?” 

“I have no idea,” Jin admitted. “You just said you wanted to get to know me better in a place where we don’t have to argue or hide.” He’d just about managed to scrounge up enough food to be able to make a passable meal if Malos wanted something, but he hadn’t managed to prepare anything else or even think about what they might do.

“Let’s order pizza and just...talk.” Malos wandered into the living room without being invited, and settled himself down on the sofa. “We have hours to ourselves. I’m sure we can find a way to amuse ourselves even if we run out of things to talk about.” 

Jin looked at the living room in despair and hurriedly carried a plate out of the room that looked to be turning a suspicious colour. He hated untidy students so much. “You don’t need to worry about the mess,” Malos called. “As long as I’m not going to die.”

“You won’t, I hope.” After shoving the plate hastily into a stack of other dirty plates, Jin went to join Malos on the sofa. It took a moment of anxious deliberation, and then he sat himself fairly close to Malos, but not close enough to be touching him. That was okay, right? 

“Would it kill you to relax a little?” Malos asked. He was smiling, though, and he didn’t sound annoyed. “I’m not going to yell at you or anything. We’re just here to chat.”

“I know,” he said. “But I don’t have anything to say and I don’t want to ruin this again.”

“Right.” Malos pulled his phone out, doing something that Jin couldn’t see. He was probably already bored. He’d already ruined this date, it was- “So, what do you like on pizza? That’s something to talk about, and I’ll pay for it.” 

“You don’t have to pay!” He protested, but Malos immediately shook his head.

“I have a job. Members of Parliament have a ridiculous salary and I spend most of it on stuff for the party, I can afford to buy a pizza with my soulmate once or twice.”

“Please don’t murder me for my pizza choices,” Jin said, “but I like pineapple on pizza.”

“Huh. Me too.” Jin could have sworn that he actually saw Malos smile, then. “One large ham and pineapple pizza...ordered. Should be here in twenty minutes or so. I’ve never dated anyone else who likes pineapple, you know. I guess that’s why we’re soulmates…” Jin couldn’t help but blush then. Malos actually acknowledging their bond made his heart do something funny.

“Liking pineapple on pizza is a prerequisite for me,” Jin said, only half joking. In the past when he was a bit younger, asking people if they liked pineapple on pizza was one of his go to ‘getting to know you’ questions.

“Bet you got a lot of dates that way.” Malos laughed. “Actually, I reckon people could overlook the pineapple thing for someone like you. You’re...attractive. And smart. There’s a lot to like.” 

Jin felt his face flush bright red. Architect, when Malos was being charming he really was great. “Y-you’re not so bad yourself, when you’re not angry and stuff.” That...was not a particularly smooth compliment. “You have a really good dress sense.”

“Thanks. This hoodie is too big for me, though.” Malos leaned forward, pulling it off. Underneath, he was wearing a shirt that fit him way too well. Jin wondered if he knew how attractive he was or if he was just oblivious to it all. Because he could certainly feel himself desperately trying not to stare at Malos’ incredibly muscular chest.

“I like wearing baggy clothes,” Jin said. Stupid small talk was exactly the point of them meeting up like this so he didn’t feel too bad for making such a redundant statement. “I like big jumpers.”

“You’re blushing,” Malos observed. When they were sitting so close, there was absolutely no way to hide it. “I like making you blush. You get all awkward and flounder about what to say. It’s very endearing…”

Jin was pretty sure at this point that he was going to catch on fire or one of his internal organs was going to implode from embarrassment. Malos was too much of a charmer for him to cope. “Th-thanks?” His voice had apparently gone up at least half an octave, too.

“I had no idea if I’d be any good at flirting with guys, but it seems pretty easy to me.” Malos leaned over, pressing a hand against Jin’s face. “You’re pretty warm. Makes a nice change from the cold weather. I just need to keep you blushing, and I’ll never need central heating again.” 

“It looks like you’re not finding that too difficult,” Jin managed to force that out, but all he could think about was Malos’ hand on his face. He had surprisingly soft hands. Someone like Malos looked like he’d have tough skin and a firm touch but he was being very gentle.

“I bet I could make you blush even more, though.” Jin didn’t doubt that, but Malos seemed intent on doing it anyway. “You know you’re the first man I’ve dated. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it would be like to kiss you…”

Until that moment, Jin hadn’t even been aware they’d been dating. They hadn’t been on a date, they hadn’t had more than a handful of conversations. He wasn’t complaining, of course, it was just...an unexpected surprise. And now Malos was talking about kissing him, and it was almost too much for him to handle. Almost. “Just- just thinking about it? I’m right here, why don’t you try it?” 

“Maybe I will,” Malos said, and he looked directly into Jin’s eyes and Jin really didn’t know what to do. Was Malos actually going to lean in and kiss him? He wasn’t prepared for this at all. He hadn’t been expecting this to happen when Malos suggested coming round. Oh well. He was a grown man, he could handle being kissed. By his soulmate. 

Just as Malos leaned in, the doorbell rang again. Jin wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or relieved as Malos pulled away, getting up to go and see who it was. Jin took the time to breathe, doing his best to relax and get that blush off his face. Honestly, this wasn’t so bad. Malos was far from the first person he’d kissed. He knew how to do this. He had way more experience than Malos with kissing men. He didn’t know why he was getting so flustered, even.

But then he thought about the sight of Malos leaning in to kiss him, and the way Malos had been looking at him, and the sound of his voice, and he realised that he definitely did know why he was getting flustered. Because Malos was really, really attractive.

“I bring pizza,” Malos said as he came back in. He looked fine, and he clearly wasn’t about to mention what had just happened. Alright, then, neither would Jin. 

“Perfect. I’d get plates, but I don’t think we have any clean ones.” He had maybe one clean plate of his own somewhere, but he only owned two specifically so he couldn’t get away with not washing them (his housemates had the same idea, except they basically never ate off plates, so they never washed them).

“That’s okay,” he said with a smile. “That’s what the box is for.”

“True.” Jin found himself smiling, actually having fun. This was nice. He helped himself to some pizza, discovering quickly that he was hungrier than anticipated. Nerves had made it very hard to eat a decent-sized lunch earlier. “Pineapple on pizza is so good.”

“I ah, I don’t want to spoil the mood, but I have a problem and I need help with it,” Malos said.

Jin didn’t like the sound of this, but he wanted to be supportive anyway. “You can say,” he said. “I’ll help if I can.”

“Well I always- I wasn’t anticipating meeting my soulmate so soon. And I don’t like people making rumours about me being single. So I have a girlfriend and I need to break up with her. Normally they break up with me because I’m not a good boyfriend but she hasn’t and-”

“You have a girlfriend?” Jin sat up, dropping the remains of his pizza slice back into the box. “You need to break up with her. Just- just call her, or do it the next time you see each other. But do it soon. I feel like I’m- I don’t know, really, but it feels wrong to be so close with you when you’re dating someone. Even though I’m your soulmate…” It should probably feel more wrong, but honestly, Jin couldn’t bring himself to care that much. 

“Yeah, I know,” Malos said with a sigh. “Honestly, I haven’t seen her in...I don’t know, two months? She asked me and for some reason I didn’t say no, and I always refuse to meet her when she suggests things. Maybe she doesn’t even think we’re dating. I’m sorry, though.”

“No- it’s fine. If you haven’t seen her in two months, just call her. I’m sure she won’t mind.” Jin relaxed a little again, picking up his pizza to finish the slice. “I’m surprised she hasn’t broken up with you. Two months- that’s a hell of a long time.” 

“Maybe she had low expectations,” he said with a shrug. Jin couldn’t see how he could be so nonplussed about this. “Maybe she likes telling people that she’s dating me without any of the stress of having a relationship. Maybe she just forgot and she’s actually dating someone else too.”

“Who knows? Can we just...stop talking about your sort-of girlfriend now? Kind of a bad thing to bring up on a date…” Malos shrugged again, and helped himself to more pizza.

“Whatever you want. Trust me, you have all of my attention now. If I’m being honest with myself, I never liked girls much.”

“I’m going to guess that’s because you’re gay,” Jin said with a small grin. Malos then managed to make a gasp sound sarcastic, which Jin hadn’t known was possible before then. “Gay men don’t tend to be romantically attracted to women.”

“Alright, you got me. I’m pretty gay. And you’re both pretty and gay, so we’re a perfect match.” Jin wanted to roll his eyes at how terrible that was, but he just found himself smiling again. 

“I’m glad you suggested this,” he said. “I was really mad at you yesterday because of what you said. I wanted us to get along off the bat but I’m glad we get along now.”

“Me too,” Malos said, and then he leaned in again, taking Jin completely by surprise when their lips touched. The kiss was gentler than Jin had expected, but he didn’t mind much. He reached up to drape his arms around Malos’ neck, keeping him close for as long as possible. When they broke apart, Jin was amused to see that finally, Malos was blushing as well. “That was...nice. Why don’t we just do that for the rest of the night?”


	6. Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malos and Jin go on a date together.

‘Do you want to meet me for coffee later? I’m almost done with my work for the day.’ The text arrived on Jin’s phone at 2pm three days after their first proper date, and it came as a surprise. That night had admittedly gone very well, but publicly getting coffee was a big step up from an almost-secret date at Jin’s house. 

‘You sure you want to go out?’ He asked. He wanted this, of course, but he could understand why Malos wouldn’t. ‘I could come to yours or we could do a video call if you prefer that.’

‘No, I really liked our last date and I know you want to do stuff like this,’ Malos said. ‘I don’t see the harm in us going out somewhere, it sounds like fun and if someone decides to bring it up with me after seeing it then that’s just how it goes.’

‘Thanks. Meet me at 4?’ Jin still had some things to do for the day, but after that, he was entirely free to go get coffee with his soulmate. He wondered what sort of coffee Malos liked. It was either going to be black coffee, or something ridiculously complex with a kilo of sugar in it.

He finished up his washing for the day and gladly pulled his coat on. Just before he left the house, one of his housemates stopped him. “Hey Jin,” Godfrey called. “Going somewhere nice?”

He didn’t have time for this right now. He wanted to get out and see Malos as soon as possible. “Just going out to meet a friend,” he said.

That seemed to be enough, although he did see a couple of his housemates exchange suspicious glances. Jin figured he’d done a pretty good job of hiding the fact that he’d found his soulmate. He’d passed off the other night as just wanting a few hours of privacy with ‘some random guy’, but maybe he wouldn’t have to hide things for much longer now. 

“No luck with the guy you invited round the other day?” Godfrey asked.

“Oh, uh, this is him,” he said, trying to push past the man to get out of the house. “If I don’t get to leave now then I’ll be late and he’s always really punctual.”

“Fine. You’d better share some details when you get back.” Finally, Godfrey stepped aside, and Jin hurried past him with a smile and a vague nod in response to the demand. He had ten minutes to walk to the cafe. Not quite enough time to make it there without being out of breath when he arrived. 

Malos was waiting outside the cafe, and his face lit up when Jin arrived in a way that made Jin’s heart leap. “Hi Jin,” he said. “Did you run here?”

“My housemates are convinced I’m getting sex,” he complained. “They wouldn’t stop pestering me about you before I left.”

“They sound lovely,” Malos said with a grin. “Hey, maybe if this date goes well, your housemates will be right. You never know…” How he said things like that without getting even slightly flustered was absolutely beyond Jin. 

“U-uh, maybe not,” he said. Malos just smiled at him with that stupid knowing smile that Jin admittedly loved rather a lot. “Could we just go inside and not talk about this stuff? I probably shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“I like you when you’re embarrassed,” Malos teased. Jin ducked his head, hiding the red flush on his cheeks and walking into the coffee shop. There was a free table by the window, and after a moment’s hesitation, he went and sat down at it. It was pretty public, but hopefully Malos would stick to his word and not mind. “What do you want to get? I’ll go order,” Malos suggested.

“Oh, just a hot chocolate for me,” he said. “The tea isn’t that great here and coffee gives me headaches.”

“You too? Huh…” Jin swore he could see Malos smile slightly to himself as he turned away. That was...nice. Jin settled back in his chair, studying Malos from behind as he leaned against the counter to order. He almost always looked so confident, and now was no exception. Even now, when he was in a situation he claimed to dislike, he exuded confidence. It was honestly very attractive.

Jin intently studied the table once Malos actually made it up to order because he didn’t really want Malos to turn round and catch Jin staring at his butt. Malos had a really nice butt. A few minutes later, Jin heard Malos’ footsteps approaching him again. He looked up just in time to see a mug of hot chocolate topped with cream being put in front of him, and he smiled. He hadn’t even asked for cream, but he was kinda glad Malos had thought to order it. 

“Thanks,” he said, sipping the hot chocolate and immediately regretting it because it was way too hot at the moment. “...ow.”

“Aww, you burnt your tongue?” Malos asked. There was a tiny hint of sarcasm in his voice and Jin felt hurt for a moment until he continued speaking. “Should I kiss it better for you?”

“If I said yes, would you do it?” Jin stuck out his burnt tongue momentarily, just to tease Malos. “You’d kiss me, in public? With tongues?” The last part was mostly a joke, but he really did want to know if Malos would kiss him in public. 

Malos reached across the table with his left hand, snatched up Jin’s right, and quickly brushed his lips against Jin’s knuckles. “Maybe not with tongues,” he said, sticking his tongue out in return, “but you make me feel very reckless.”

"I suppose I should be flattered. You come across as someone with a lot of self control, so I'm glad I can...break through that." Jin was quite impressed with himself for keeping his voice steady, even though Malos was still holding his hand.

"If anyone could do it, it would be you," Malos said. "You're my soulmate, after all." It made Jin feel happy inside to hear Malos say that. He couldn't do anything but smile brightly at him. "Dear Architect you're cute."

And there was the blush again, back with a vengeance. Jin hastily picked up his hot chocolate, hiding his face behind the mountain of cream on top. "Thank you- ah... What drink did you get?" Changing the subject seemed wise for now.

"Hot chocolate with marshmallows," Malos said. Hmm. So Jin had been right that Malos had a sweet tooth, then. "It's still too hot to drink though." Malos was still holding his hand across the table.

"Just pick the marshmallows out," Jin suggested. Malos considered it, then picked up his spoon. Over the course of the next couple of minutes, Jin was treated to a very amusing display of his soulmate chasing marshmallows around a cup.

"This is nice," Malos said after a while, his nose slightly smeared with half melted marshmallow. "I don't know, I've never really been on a proper date before."

"I've been on a few," Jin said, taking a slurp of hot chocolate. "My relationships have mostly been quieter, though. A lot more staying at home, less of the...well, this sort of thing."

"You mentioned that you don't really date people like me," Malos said. "I promise I won't get jealous at your answer. What have your other relationships been like?"

"Interesting." Jin laughed. "The last guy I properly dated was called Akhos. We're still good friends, but he's...well, he's skinny and smart and constantly reading a book. Dating him was alright for a while, but it wasn't right."

"I hope we're right," Malos said. "After I went home from yours the other day I texted the girl. Turns out she thought I was a dick and she's dating someone else already, so I don't think there were any hard feelings there."

"Huh. Well, at least that was easily fixed." Jin was glad he hadn't been seeing anyone when he found Malos. "So, have you really never dated anyone properly? Just girls who you asked out and then ignored for several months at a time?"

"That's pretty much it," Malos said with a shrug. Jin felt something nudge his leg, and when he reached down to see what it was, Malos grabbed his hand and held it again. Jin's blush returned. "I didn't like turning them down in case they asked me if I was gay or started to spread rumours because they were annoyed about rejection."

"You're seriously paranoid," Jin said, shaking his head almost fondly. "If you weren't gay, you wouldn't be worrying about that at all. It may shock you to know that the large majority of girls are actually humans with rational thoughts who can handle it when a guy turns them down."

"I'm trying to work on it," Malos said. "When people are rude to me I always have to return the favour. And being..." He shifted awkwardly. "It gives people a reason to be rude. And I don't like having a bad image."

"Take your time. Work on it for as long as you want. I can wait, I'm sure." Jin squeezed Malos' hand under the table, smiling at him. He wasn't used to being so supportive, but this was his soulmate.

"I don't think you'll have to wait too long. You're- I..." Malos said. Jin looked at him, slightly confused as to what he meant by that, but Malos didn't say any more. He just continued to drink his hot chocolate.

Jin didn't ask what he meant, but he did squeeze Malos' hand again. This date was almost unimaginably sappy- Jin couldn't remember a time when he'd ever done something so...romantic. It was odd. But, it was nice. "You're not one to be lost for words," Jin said with a small smile. He then pretended to ignore that Malos was blushing. Even though it was sort of adorable and incredibly difficult to ignore.

"It's hard not to be when I'm around someone so breathtakingly handsome." Alright, that was a smooth recovery, Jin had to admit. He just smiled fondly, taking a slurp of hot chocolate in lieu of actually replying.

After a few minutes, he realised that his hot chocolate was coming to an end, and once it did they wouldn't have much reason to continue their date. They'd go back their separate ways and this would be over until Malos worked up the courage to do something like this again. Jin didn't want it to be over yet. He sort of wanted things to stay like this forever. He set down his drink, catching Malos' eye to get his attention. "Do you want to go somewhere else after this? Not my house, I don't think you wanna meet my housemates just yet... I don't know where, I'm open to suggestions."

"We could just walk for a bit," Malos suggested. "There's a park near here and it isn't too wet at the moment." Jin watched with faint amusement as Malos tipped the mug back to get the last few drops of his hot chocolate and promptly tipped half of what remained all over his jacket.

"Well done," Jin said dryly. He fished a tissue out of his pocket and handed it over so that Malos could clean up the stain. It was lucky that Malos' jacket was leather and not anything more absorbent.

"Fuck you," Malos said, a huge smile on his face in return as he wiped the liquid off. "Down yours and we'll see if your jumper fares any better."

"Fine." Jin tipped his head back and carefully emptied the rest of his hot chocolate into his mouth, ensuring that not a single drop went anywhere that it wasn't supposed to. Plonking the mug back down on the table, he gave Malos a smug grin.

“I actually hate you,” Malos said, but his face said otherwise. “Your talents never end.”

“That’s me,” he said with a grin. “I have plenty of talents you haven’t seen yet.” Malos chose that moment to wink at him and Jin was very glad he didn’t have any liquid in his mouth when he spluttered. That was not what he had been going for.

“I look forward to seeing what your other talents are,” Malos said with a smirk. “If any of them involve a lot of blushing, I’ll be happy to see them.” He laughed, and Jin just halfheartedly scowled at him. 

They walked along the streets for a short while. It was crowded out in the city, as always, and because of that Jin didn’t take Malos’ hand as they walked. Holding hands under a table in a cafe was completely different to walking along a road, passing lots of people. He didn’t want to make Malos uncomfortable like that.

The park was a little less crowded, and reasonably free of annoying small children. The sun was just starting to go down now, painting everything in that golden sunsetty glow that always looked so pretty. The universe seemed to be aligning perfectly to make this the most romantic date Jin had ever been on. 

“Can I kiss you?” Malos asked. His voice was near a whisper, and just as he said it, he glanced around to see if anyone was watching them. “Is that okay? It’s nice here and I want this to be special.”

“Go ahead.” Jin led Malos over to a small group of trees, secluded from the main area of the park. Still beautiful, but a little further away from the public view. “Here, no one will see us now. Kiss me as much as you want.”


	7. Stepping Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malos seems worried so Jin asks him what's on his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone asked us to update so here you go :D

Over the few weeks after their date, Jin had never been happier in his life. They’d managed to power through the tension and hesitation in their relationship and now even just speaking to Malos was the best thing in his life. He wanted to do it all the time, and he found himself neglecting some of the other things he used to do to make time for talking to Malos. Some of his activism colleagues were a bit snippy about his sudden cut down in time dedicated to planning things, but he found that he didn’t really care. Being with Malos was so much better than constantly being bitter and worrying about safety. 

Of course, there was still some level of secrecy to everything. Jin couldn’t just go around flaunting the fact that Malos was his soulmate, as much as he wanted to. Even though their dates weren’t entirely private, Jin knew Malos was still a little nervous about being too affectionate in public. There was a balance to be made between all of it, and it was honestly slightly tiring. He wanted to spend time with Malos, but Malos had a job and he had studying and they had to be careful too. It was difficult, but it was completely worth it.

On one of their dates, Jin couldn’t help but notice that Malos seemed rather quiet, as if there was something on his mind. Granted, they were just watching a movie together, but still- Malos usually had something to say. He liked to make sarcastic commentary when they were watching films together, even that one time when they’d gone to the cinema together (they didn’t do that anymore), but this time he was completely silent.

“Is something wrong?” Jin lifted his head from Malos’ shoulder, looking up at him instead. “You seem...quiet. Grumpy, I’m inclined to say. Is there anything I can help you with…?” He paused the movie they were watching, making sure that Malos didn’t have the option of ignoring him. 

“No, I… Yes, there is something,” he said with a sigh. “I was thinking about things. Don’t worry about it, I promise I like the film. We don’t have to stop just because of my thoughts.”

“Thinking about what sort of things, exactly?” Jin sat up properly, determined not to let this go. He was enjoying the film too, but it wasn’t anywhere near as important as dealing with this. “Come on, talk to me.” 

“I don’t want to hide,” he said. “I said initially that I didn’t want anyone knowing. But I was just thinking, I...saw a wedding coming out of a church on the way home from work this afternoon, and it just got me thinking about how we can’t be like that.”

"Are you saying you want to marry me? A little soon, isn't it?" Jin was mostly teasing, and he smiled. "In all seriousness, though... You want to come out, right? What's stopping you?"

Malos sighed, clearly frustrated. "Everything," he said. "It's so uncertain. Even our rights as a couple are uncertain. We can't get married, we can't even register as a couple so there are so many things we can't do. We're barely even free from violence. I don't want to put my career in jeopardy, but...I don't think I can call myself your soulmate if I'm not willing to risk something to show how much I care for you."

Jin frowned, reaching up to pull Malos down into a kiss. "No matter what you do or don't do for me, you're still my soulmate. I care about you." He sat back. "Think about this- you lead a political party supported by young people who are all liberal and open-minded. They won't give a shit if your soulmate is a man. Hell, they'll probably like you more for it."

"But then, it's just- am I just telling them for the popularity?" Malos looked genuinely conflicted about all of this. "Why do I want to tell people? Why can't I just stop hiding instead?"

"If we just keep going as we are, someone will take a photo of us on a date and publish it somewhere, and the internet will go wild with rumours. If you take control of the situation and tell everyone yourself, it's YOUR moment. You'll be telling everyone as an act of pride, not just to squash some strange rumours."

Malos thought about it for a moment and then nodded, before doing something quite rare and leaning to rest his head on Jin's shoulder. "I've hidden it for so long. Even thinking about changing that is terrifying in a way I'm not used to."

"I know..." Jin reached up to run his fingers through Malos' hair. Short though it was, it was also surprisingly soft. "But you can do this, I promise. It's going to work out just fine. So... Have you thought about how to tell people?"

"I sort of threw a couple of things around in my head," he said. "Nothing feels right. I don't want to be flashy about it, I don't know if I should bring you straight into the picture or if I should at all."

"I don't mind the publicity," Jin said. "Trust me, I'm used to people being rude about me on the internet. Drag me on stage at a press conference, make a video about it and post it online. Whatever you feel happiest doing."

"I don't know, nothing feels right in my head," he said.

"If nothing feels right to you, maybe you're not ready," Jin said. "There's no shame in that, and you should wait as long as you need."

"No, no... I am ready, I just need inspiration. Trust me, I want to do this." Malos paused, and Jin heard him let out a soft sigh. "I want the world to know about you. I...love you."

Jin's heart stopped just for a moment. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. He could hardly believe that Malos had said it first. He'd been thinking it for weeks now, despite the fact that they'd only known each other for little more than a month. "I love you too. I love you, Malos."

Malos sat up, shifting so that he could kiss Jin properly. Jin let him, happily leaning back against the sofa and twining a hand into his soulmate's hair. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt happiness like this.


	8. Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malos deliberates over how to reveal his relationship with Jin.

“Do you think this is okay?” Malos indicated the post he’d been endlessly writing and editing for a couple of hours now. Jin looked up from his book. After about half an hour of deliberating, he’d apparently decided to include the photo they’d spent an hour setting up of the pair of them trying to look natural in natural lighting when they were very clearly staging the photo. It had been a task and a half.

"I don't know," he said in response. "I keep telling you, you don't need to put so much effort into all of this. I have so many much nicer pictures of us on my phone, and why bother with some big grand speech? It doesn't read like something you're comfortable with saying..."

"I make plenty of grand speeches," Malos said, sounding slightly affronted. "I'm good at grand speeches. I thought it read pretty well."

"It reads like you're terrified." Jin leaned forwards, lowering his phone down in front of Malos' face. "Look at this photo. It looks much less forced, and you look happier. In the one you took, you look constipated."

"Excuse you," Malos said, sticking his tongue out. "I just want to get this right, you know? I don't want to be too casual about it in case they think I'm taking it flippantly or something."

"And if you make it sound too forced, they'll think this is a publicity stunt," Jin pointed out. "Trust me, Malos, your supporters are mostly young. They'll appreciate something casual."

"The sponsors aren't young," Malos said. "They're weird old intellectuals who literally want to bring down the government. Probably only for their own benefit."

"Your sponsors aren't the ones who'll read a post on your social media pages. You can do a big fancy speech for them, but keep this casual." Malos sighed, and Jin knew he was getting somewhere with this.

"But what do I write? I'm not good at casual," Malos admitted, like Jin didn't know that already. Malos was the man he loved, but dear Architect he had no idea how to dress for a casual date. "Don't look at me like that! I'm asking for your advice."

"Write... 'I'd like to introduce you all to my soulmate, Jin'. It doesn't have to be complicated." Jin patted Malos on the arm. "Go on. Do it, it'll be fine."

"That sounds really weird though," Malos said, frowning at the screen. He'd replaced the image and deleted all the text, but he clearly still wasn't happy. "I feel like I should specify that it's romantic. Because people like to claim it isn't."

"Soulmate...and boyfriend," Jin said after a moment's thought. "No one can argue that that isn't romantic, can they?"

"Fine, okay, that sounds fine." Malos was clearly still stressed about this. "You're sure you're okay with me doing this? I could say something about having a male soulmate without revealing your identity."

"I'm fine with it. I promise." Jin reached over, pressing the 'post' button before Malos could fuss about this anymore. "There. It's done now."

"Aaaaaaah," Malos said, staring at his phone. Jin almost laughed at the uncharacteristic noise he'd just made, but he knew it was because Malos was stressed. Leaning over again, he pulled Malos' phone out of his grip, put it on silent, and then moved it to the other side of the room.

"Jin!" Malos made a half-hearted move to get back up and retrieve his phone, then slumped back against the sofa. "Ah... You're probably right. I'll just ignore things for a few hours."

"I could help you ignore it," Jin suggested, going straight to sit on Malos' lap before twisting his head to kiss him. "I think I can keep your mind off things in several ways, in fact."

Malos looked uncertain for a moment, glancing over at his phone, but then he nodded. "I suppose that would work... What better way to distract myself from an online shitstorm than to have some really good sex?"

Jin spluttered. "I wasn't- that's not-" he'd sort of been going for that, but not so quickly. He wasn't going for that just yet and he was fairly sure Malos had never even had sex with a man before. "Not on the sofa, at least?" His voice went a bit high there. He had not been prepared for that at all.

"You climbed on my lap and made an innuendo at me, how were you NOT going for sex on the sofa?" Malos laughed. "I'll carry you to my bedroom if that's what you'd prefer, princess."

"I'm- maybe not yet," he said, feeling very embarrassed to turn him down. "I wasn't really expecting you to be so up for it. I was sort of fooling around in the name of maybe making out. Sorry."

"Never apologise for wanting to make out," Malos said, prodding him in the ribs. "Now come on, get that pretty face a bit closer to mine." Before Jin could make any objection to being called pretty, he found himself being dragged forwards into a kiss.

"You know that's not what I meant," he said, pressing the point even though he didn't really want to. He knew he should make sure Malos understood. "I'm sorry I led you to believe something like that. I shouldn't joke about sex if I don't really want it."

"Stop fussing about it, really," Malos said. "I'll get you into bed when you're ready for it, no pressure. I don't care if it happens tomorrow or in six months, you're my soulmate so it'll be worth the wait. Now, come on- kiss me."

"You say that like it'd be a chore," he said, leaning in again and capturing Malos' lips against his own for a few moments. "Speaking of sex, do you even...?"

"I'm sure with you, it would be the opposite of a chore." Malos smiled, and Jin found his worries melting away. "What do you mean, 'do I even'? Do I even what, hmm?"

"I suppose it's a silly question," he said. It really was stupid. Everyone knew how gay men had sex. And this kind of discussion wasn't his favourite. "I'll ask a better question. Do you even have lube?"

"I do. And I have a few other things stashed in my bedroom drawers that we could have fun with, too." Malos winked at him, and Jin flushed red again. He swore he wasn't usually this easy to fluster. Malos was just really, really, annoyingly good at it.

"I feel like we should stop this conversation before I overheat," he said. This was probably not a good thing to talk or think about right now. He didn't want sex so he really didn't need Malos turning him on. They should definitely stop.

"Fine. But any time you feel like continuing this conversation, I'm up for it." How did Malos stay so cool? It wasn't fair. 

"Maybe when we're actually in bed together? Come on- let's just kiss like I wanted to. Before you started bringing up your sex toy collection." Jin grinned, pulling Malos into a kiss before he had a chance to say anything back. This was how it was meant to be. They were having fun together and they didn't have to worry about hiding anymore. They could be themselves, and they were going to be able to be themselves in public, and everything about this was perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've, ah, upped the rating for this to an M. If you think this is still okay for T then let me know, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.


	9. Responses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jin and Malos look at the responses to Malos' post.

“I think it should be safe to check responses now,” Jin said. It had been a few hours since Malos had posted the photo of the pair of them, and the tension had worn off slightly. Jin was honestly sort of excited to see how people responded. He knew it would be positive, so he just wanted Malos to be happy at the response.

“Yeah… Architect, I don’t want to look now. Jin, you get my phone.” Jin obliged, tapping in Malos’ passcode to open it and immediately wincing. Every social media app on his home screen was displaying 99+ notifications. 

“Well, you’ve got a lot to get through…” He handed Malos the phone and Malos pulled a face at it. “Maybe you should scroll through it all quickly. I’m sure half the responses will just be a string of emojis and people tagging their friends.”

Malos nodded, hesitantly opening the first app and going straight to his notifications, scrolling down until he presumably got to where things had been before he posted it. He was scrolling for quite a while, steadily looking more and more alarmed as he went. “Lots of rainbow emojis,” he noted. “And hearts.” He sighed. “Several people pointed out that there’s a cat in the background of the photo. Quite a few people asked me if my soulmate was you or the cat. The internet is a perplexing place…”

“The soulmate is me, but your boyfriend is the cat,” Jin said with a grin. “That’s going to be a thing now, isn’t it? Are you gay or just a furry?”

“Oh Architect if anyone other than you asks me that, I will personally gouge something out of their body. Preferably a vital organ.”

“What a charmer you are…” Jin leaned over so that he could see the phone as well. Malos was slowly scrolling back up through the comments, and Jin couldn’t see a single negative one. Nothing but rainbows, support, and a hell of a lot of jokes about the cat. 

“This is a nice one,” he said, indicating a long comment. “They’re thanking you for being open about it. And they think the cat is cute, too. Whose cat even is that?”

“Next door’s,” Malos said, staring intently at the screen. “They have a couple of cats, I think. It can’t always be the same one shitting in my garden.”

“You should tell your neighbours that their cat’s gone viral,” Jin mused. He took Malos’ phone, opening up the internet browser and typing in Malos’ name. “There’s already three articles about you. This one mentions the cat in the title, but not me.” 

“Exactly what we like to see,” Malos said, nudging Jin in the ribs. He was awfully fond of doing that; Jin regretted ever showing that he was ticklish in that area. “How are people getting stuff out this fast? It’s not like I even said that much.”

“You underestimate the power of the media,” Jin said, shrugging. “They aren’t exactly serious, highbrow articles. You might get a few of those tomorrow, though. I bet some people are going to want an interview. With you, not me. Or perhaps with the cat.” 

“They might want to talk you too,” Malos said. “Can you do stuff like that? I would get it if you can’t, of course, interviews aren’t for everyone and you can refuse. But they will ask, I can guarantee that.”

“I can do interviews. Malos, I’ve spent several years shouting at crowds and talking to people. An interview isn’t much different from any of that. I’ll be fine.” Jin patted him reassuringly on the shoulder, then handed him his phone back. “Really, though, I genuinely think people will want to talk to the cat.” 

“I don’t even know the name of the cat,” Malos said. “Architect I hope that the cat isn’t what they make into a thing. The last thing I need is the new demographic of the group being a bunch of meme kids who don’t know what anarchism even is.”

"I'm sure people will still understand who you are," Jin said comfortingly. "It won't all be about some stupid cat in the background of our photo. You did a serious thing, and people will recognise that."

"I sure as hell hope so," Malos said, but he looked a lot less stressed than he had only a couple of minutes before. Jin saw that as a victory. That was the most important thing about all this, after all; Malos being happier and more comfortable with himself.

"I know for sure that people will love you," Jin insisted. "I certainly do. This is all going to work out just fine." He couldn't know for sure, but still, he was confident.

"I love you too," Malos said, with a clear smile in his voice. "They're all being so nice." He directed his attention back to his phone. "Why are they being so nice? Do half these people even know who I am? Everything I do or post gets shouted down by conservatives online."

"You're gay now, you have all the gays on your side." Jin laughed. "Seriously, though, of course everyone's being nice. It's hard not to congratulate someone on finding their soulmate."

"That's true," Malos said, and the way he looked at Jin in that moment caught him off guard. He looked so happy. "I guess your housemates will find out pretty soon. They seem sort of strange, will they be weird about it?"

"Almost definitely," Jin said. "Ugh... I dread to think what they'll be asking me. Ah well. It's unavoidable now, I suppose."

Malos shifted next to him, setting his phone on the low table next to the sofa and moving his now free arms to drape them around Jin's shoulders. He shifted closer, allowing himself to relax against Malos. "You could stay here tonight," Malos said. "If you don't want to deal with immediate fallout, that is."

"I could... Are you going to tell me more about your large, I assume, collection of sex toys?" That was enough to get Malos to poke him in the ribs, and Jin snorted with laughter.

"Only if you want me to," Malos said, poking him again. "Though somehow I get the impression that you don't really want that just yet. Especially judging by how red you're going." This time, he poked Jin's face, but the movement very quickly turned into something resembling a caress.

"I swear I don't normally blush this much. Perhaps it's a soulmate thing. Also, I'm nowhere near as innocent as you seem to think I am." That was going to be a hard point to defend when he was red as a tomato at the mere mention of sex toys, though.

"But what will you do if I say the word penis?" Malos asked, a definite giggle escaping his mouth. Jin was very quickly becoming convinced that his soulmate was an actual child. "See? You're going even more red now."

"That's the red of despair," Jin insisted, wondering how he could possibly be going MORE red. "The red face of 'dear Architect, my soulmate has the mental age of a five year old'."

"How many five year olds know the word penis?" Malos asked. "Kids these days, honestly." He grinned and then let out an exaggerated tutting sound that sounded uncannily like Jin's racist old uncle.

"That's entirely besides the point." Jin sighed fondly, swatting at Malos' arm. "You're the politician. You do something about five year olds knowing about their sex organs. I'd much rather you focus on me when we're together..."

"I could focus on your sex organs," Malos suggested. Jin was definitely contemplating sinking through both the sofa and the floor until he reached a point where he didn't have to deal with this embarrassment ever again.

"I don't know what it is!" He protested as Malos laughed at him. "Maybe it's a soulmate thing but it just feels like my first relationship again."

"I suppose this IS my first relationship- or at least the first one I've cared about," Malos mused. "Back to the subject of embarrassing you, I can't wait to find out properly what gay sex is like. Any tips for me?"

"Oh dear Architect," Jin said. His face was burning and he turned his eyes to the ceiling in mock prayer. "Please deliver me from this situation. I don't believe you exist but honestly I'm begging you." Malos just kept laughing at him. "The best tip for sex is foreplay and a butt load of lube. Literally."

"Duly noted," Malos managed to say through his laughter. "I don't know how long it's been since I've said that you're adorable, but I feel like it needs to be said again..."

"Please noo," he said, desperately trying to hide his burning face with his hands. "You're evil and I'm not adorable at all. At best you can maybe call me pretty. Elegant is preferred. Adorable is just..." Honestly, he couldn't think of a way to express the sentiment without saying 'aaaaah'.

"I'm very evil. If not adorable, can I call you cute? At least sweet? To be honest, you're all three of those things..." Malos reached up to pat the top of his head, and Jin swatted his hand away. “Aww,” he said, pouting. Architect that face he pulled was adorable. “Can’t I ruffle your floofy hair?”

“You can’t touch my hair until you admit how cool and manly it is,” he said, fully aware that his hair wasn’t at all manly, and that was exactly what he’d had in mind when deciding to grow it out.

“Not a chance,” Malos said, grinning. He could look awfully smug when he wanted to. Jin hated that he found it so attractive. “I bet I’m stronger than you, so if it came to a fight you could hardly stop me touching your hair.” 

“Fight me then,” Jin said, raising his fists into a loose stance, despite the fact that he was still relaxed against Malos’ side. “Do it now, fight me for the right to touch my hair.”

“A noodle would put up more of a fight than you,” Malos said with a grin, poking Jin’s nose gently. He feigned defeat, crying out and falling against Malos’ chest.

“One day I’ll beat you,” he said from his spot on Malos’ chest. “Ugh… Until then, though, I might just fall asleep on you. It’s been a long day…” He sighed. “A pretty good day, though. I’m proud of you, for what you did.” 

“I’m happy I did it,” he said. “I feel better, now. Not great, but I think I’ll feel good with time. I wanted to do this. Thank you for being there for me when I decided to.”


	10. Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jin stays the night with Malos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No comments on the last chapter :( please let me know if a chapter isn't as good as the ones before, because then I can work on fixing it.

Jin hadn’t really planned for it to happen, but that evening he just didn’t really feel like going home, and he felt so safe with Malos he just wanted to stay. Now there were no issues with people discovering their relationship outside of their terms, they could do whatever they wanted. Because of that, he ended up staying overnight. He’d planned to sleep on the sofa, but Malos had managed to persuade him to share the bed. Jin supposed that was fair enough, really- they were soulmates, after all, there was no point in him sleeping on the sofa. Although, sharing a bed with Malos meant that he was probably going to have to face even more awkward sex talk. 

As it turned out, though, Malos didn’t go for even more sex talk. He seemed pretty content to just lie down next to him. Initially, they didn’t even cuddle, but then the morning came and when Jin woke up, fairly early as normal, he was wrapped tightly in Malos’ arms. So tightly, in fact, that he couldn’t really move. Jin wriggled around to face Malos as best he could, elbowing him none too gently in the ribs. “Hey. Wake up, you’re crushing me… You didn’t warn me that you turned into an octopus in your sleep.” 

Malos mumbled something Jin couldn't quite make out and sleepily opened his eyes, not relaxing his grip at all. In fact, if anything, he moved even closer to him, probably just heading for the nearest warm object while he was still mostly asleep. Honestly, it was pretty cute. "Wake up," Jin murmured again, wriggling up a bit to kiss Malos' cheek. When that didn't work, he bit the end of his nose instead.

"Ow...!" Malos' face creased into a frown and his eyes properly opened. "Ack, there's a demon in my bed, someone get it out."

"Boo," Jin said dryly. "Are you going to release me now?" He prodded at Malos' arms, still firmly locked around his chest. "Because even demons need to breathe, you know."

"What if I don't want the demon to breathe?" Malos said, squeezing him again. Jin made a show of gasping for breath, but at this point, now Malos was awake, he didn't actually care that they were so close.

"Perhaps the demon might just have to resort to sly tactics to get his breath back," he retorted. He leaned in as if to kiss Malos, then slipped a hand down to jab him in the ribcage whilst he was distracted.

Malos made a grunting sound before removing his arms from around Jin's shoulders and slinging them round his waist in a looser hold. "That was a low blow," he said.

"I could go lower if you'd like," Jin said with a sly smile.

Malos raised an eyebrow. "Could you actually, though? Or would you just start blushing like a schoolgirl again, because I'm not convinced..." He was clearly just teasing, but Jin felt the need to poke him again anyway.

It was sort of early, but he felt more confident after sleeping in the same bed as Malos. He let his hands drift down to rest low on Malos' waist, and met his eyes. He tried and failed once more to not blush, but he maintained eye contact and smiled. Maybe Malos would take him seriously now. "You're being serious?" Malos met his gaze as well, shifting so that his arms were around Jin's shoulders. "Enough with the teasing... That blush of yours is actually pretty attractive. Especially when you're looking at me like that..."

"I'm being serious if it's not too early for you," Jin decided. He hadn't really anticipated any of this, but he felt ready now, honestly. He felt even closer to Malos after the last couple of days and this night just showed him that it definitely wasn't all about how attractive he was to Malos.

"It's not too early at all," Malos said almost immediately. He leaned in for a kiss that Jin gladly returned, although it was cut short a few moments later. "Although...this IS the first time I've ever done this with another man. You might actually have to, ah...show me how things work."

"That's what I was going to ask you yesterday," Jin asked with a laugh. "But then I realised that you probably know where things go when two men have sex. Apparently not."

"I know the basics," Malos said indignantly. "Just...not so much the finer details. But I'm assuming you do, so you show me how this works." He rolled over so that he was lying underneath Jin. Somehow, even in that position, he was still looking a little defensive. It was really quite sweet.

"I'm not all that used to doing it from this end but I've done it before, so I think we'll be okay," he said. He felt like he was just chattering out of nerves now. "Just keep talking to me. Let me know if you want me to explain something or if you want me to stop."

"Will do. Let's just- stop talking for a little bit, though. I'd rather kiss you." Malos reached up and grabbed Jin's shirt, pulling him down into a kiss. He was pretty bossy for someone essentially pinned to a bed, Jin mused. It was kind of nice, though.

"If you want me to do anything more," Jin said between kisses, "you're going to have to point me towards your lube." This was definitely an interesting development. Jin was only glad that they were already in bed and already weren't wearing much clothing.

"Uh...drawer. On that side." Malos waved his hand vaguely in the direction of Jin's left hand side, and for once, it looked like HE was the one blushing. Jin knew already that he was going to enjoy this way more than he had with anyone else he'd slept with.

-

"It hurt more than I expected," Malos said once they'd both managed to calm down and clean up. They were now standing in the kitchen, trying to work out what came next after...that.

Jin laughed. "Were you expecting it to be really easy?" He asked. "It didn't hurt too much, did it?"

"It was pretty bad at first, but after that...much less bad." Malos smiled, looking slightly embarrassed at the fact that he had enjoyed it so much. Jin found it adorable.

"I'm not really sure what to do from here," Jin admitted. "Breakfast? It's getting towards being late morning though. And I don't know where your food is."

"We could go out," Malos suggested. "I believe the kids call it 'brunch'." Jin couldn't tell if he was being serious or not, so he laughed away. The sheer gravity with which Malos had said 'the kids' was something only he could pull off, Jin was convinced.

"Malos, you're not even twenty five," Jin said with a laugh. "I'm pretty sure that plenty of people consider you just a kid still." Honestly, after all the reveals of yesterday, Jin didn't feel like going out in public with Malos just yet. He was slightly concerned that if they went out they'd get accosted by people.

"True." Malos yawned, wandering out of the kitchen to go and peer out of the front windows. "There's no reporters camped out on the street this morning, so I guess no one cares THAT much about my little announcement. We probably could go out..."

"Do reporters often camp outside your house?" Jin asked, mildly concerned. Living near Malos must be fun if this was the result.

"Every so often," he said with a shrug. "Normally they go away if the neighbours complain."

"Being famous sounds like a shitshow," Jin said, shaking his head. "And now you've dragged me into it too. It's a good thing that you're hot," he teased.

"It's good to know I'm appreciated for something," Malos said, nudging Jin gently with his shoulder. "Do you want to go out? We could stay here if you'd prefer to."

"How likely do you think we are to get mobbed by reporters? And how much do you think we look like we just had sex?" Jin looked Malos up and down. He didn't look too bad, but then again, he had short hair. Jin hadn't actually seen his own hair since they'd gotten out of bed, but he could only imagine it was a mess.

"You need a shower, for sure," Malos said with a chuckle. "And maybe some clothes that haven't been slept in. I think you got something on your shirt, too." Jin looked down at his shirt and blushed. He definitely couldn't go outside wearing that.

"All of that's going to take a while, it'll be too late even for brunch by then." Jin shrugged. "We may as well stay in. Or order food here, depending on if there's actually anything edible in your fridge."

"I have plenty of edible stuff in my fridge," Malos said. "Go and grab yourself a shirt from my drawers and have a shower? I'll get something started while you do it."

"Sounds perfect," Jin said. He leaned over to kiss Malos for a moment, then pulled away to make his way back upstairs. He couldn't imagine any of Malos' shirts would fit him very well, but at least none of them had questionable stains on.


	11. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jin goes home, taking Malos with him.

“Are you sure you want to go home?” Later that afternoon, Malos was clearly reluctant to let him go home. “I like you being here, and it’s not like I don’t have enough space. Also, your housemates sound really weird and I don’t know how they’re going to feel about us. Not that they’d hate it, but they might be a bit...personal.”

“They won’t be that bad,” Jin promised. At least, he hoped that they wouldn’t be too bad. He would have to have a word with them if any of them thought it was appropriate to be rude to Malos. “Besides, I need clothes.”

Malos looked at him, probably examining the fact that Jin was now wearing one of his (black) jumpers that only fit him very loosely. “You don’t need more clothes,” he said with a smile. “I like the look of that on you. It looks nice.”

“It looks baggy,” Jin shot back. “If it would bother you that much, you don’t have to come with me. But my housemates have probably already found out, and you’ll have to meet them at some point, so you may as well just get it over and done with now.”

“Oh, I’m fine with coming with you,” he said. “I just don’t want you to leave. It’s nice, you being here, and I get the feeling that I’m going to be quite busy after all this with politics things. I don’t want to miss the chance to spend time together.”

“Then let’s spend time together going to get me some clean clothes. I’m not backing down on this, so you may as well come with me.” Jin headed for the front door, and after a moment Malos rolled his eyes and followed him.

“You’re so stubborn…” He said. “Just, argh. Fine, I’ll come with you. But don’t expect me to be all happy go lucky with your housemates if they ask if we banged yet.”

“Well, we did,” he said. He wasn’t the type to go sharing stuff about his sexual life, but the way Malos’ face twisted into an almost sheepish look was absolutely worth claiming that he would.

“Don’t go telling them that. I don’t need more rumours being spread about my sex life, even if these ones might be true…” Malos pulled a face. “If anyone asks about sex, just go for a ‘no comment’.” 

“That sounds suspicious, though,” Jin teased. “You have to admit that.” Malos pulled yet another face at him.

“Would you prefer to lie and claim we don’t do that kind of thing?” He asked. He looked genuinely curious. “Or would you prefer to confirm that we have?”

“You’re right,” he said with a smile, reaching for Malos’ hand as they walked down the street. To his delight, Malos took it. “If we say we have, people will jump on us about immoral behaviour, setting a bad example. But if we say we haven’t, we just look like we believe it’s immoral behaviour. Damned if we do, damned if we don’t.”

“Now you’re finally understanding what it’s like to be a politician,” Malos said, laughing. “There are no right answers, so sometimes you just have to say a big ‘fuck you’ to everyone and state your opinion anyway. But perhaps not when it comes to us having sex.”

“Isn’t ‘saying a big fuck you’ just your entire political standing?” He asked, and Malos laughed and shook his head.

“I’m sure you’re know this, but it’s a very specific fuck you to certain foreign powers posing as an organised religion as an excuse to interfere with everyone,” he said. “And also a fuck you to just about everything they’ve ever supported.”

“You can say you hate Indol, I don’t think anyone is around to judge you,” Jin said, laughing. “We’re almost to my house now, it’s just down that next street.” It wasn’t the nicest or the biggest house, but it was alright, and it was home for now.

He got to the front door, unlocked it, and led Malos inside. Normally he’d call to say he was home, but he didn’t feel like attracting too much attention right now. “Okay, do you want to come upstairs?” He asked. He actually wasn’t sure what they were going to do now. He didn’t even know why Malos was really coming with him.

“Sure. I suppose I should see where my soulmate sleeps… Do you share your room with anyone?” 

“Thankfully not…” Jin couldn’t imagine sharing a bedroom with any of his housemates, really. It would just get...too weird. “They can be a bit strange. Not in a bad way! Just, I value personal space and not being anywhere near Sev’s knife collection.”

“Good idea,” Malos said. Jin had no idea if Sever, who absolutely refused to be called Severus, would get on with Malos. Sometimes they were startlingly similar, but that was no guarantee they’d get on. They might try to out-intimidate each other and eventually escalate into murder. “So… One of your roommates has a knife collection, so I’m guessing he’s not the cute and cuddly type. Who else do you live with? Anyone nice? I saw on the way in that your living room was, ah, covered in newspaper and paint, and I’m guessing Mr. Knife Collection didn’t do that…”

“That was Floren,” Jin said with a small grin. “He’s a fine art student. The issue is that his schemes don’t always come to mind when he’s in a studio with plenty of materials, so sometimes he gets a bit carried away in the living room. His bedroom is a minefield, too, but he’s absolutely lovely.”

“Didn’t you mention to me once that you dated someone called Floren?” Malos frowned. “Is he-”

“The same Floren, yes. How many Florens do you know? And don’t worry, it was ages ago. I am very much over him now, I promise. Like I said, he’s lovely, but a little too sweet for my romantic tastes.” Not to mention that Floren could occasionally be a bit manipulative and it made Jin uncomfortable to be under someone’s influence so much when he knew the relationship was likely never going to be permanent. It had been a messy breakup, but Floren didn’t seem to believe in grudges once it was all over. At least, Jin hoped he didn’t.

“I wouldn’t get jealous or anything,” Malos said. “I know how you feel, and it’s not like that’s going to disappear.” His gaze was so intense, however, that Jin was pretty sure that he was feeling a tad jealous.

“Don’t start feeling like you need to kiss me in the middle of the hallway just to stake your claim or something,” Jin said, playfully shoving Malos and heading into his own room. It wasn’t messy at all- he prided himself on keeping it fairly neat. The only thing out of place was a slightly awry stack of books by his bed that he had been reading for research. 

“Your bedroom is nerdy,” Malos said immediately, looking around. He’d visited the house a few times but he’d never been in Jin’s bedroom; that had always felt a bit too personal. “There are history things everywhere. Dear Architect my soulmate has no life outside of history.”

“If you’d actually look a bit further, you’d probably find that not all these books are history books.” He had two whole shelves of novels, for instance. And plenty of non-book items in the rest of his room.

“How many of those are historical fiction or have some value in understanding the past?” Malos asked. Jin glanced at the bookshelf and pulled a face. Malos was right. “I’m right, I can see it on your face,” he said, very clearly gloating. Malos was a bit of a dick, honestly, but Jin loved him all the same.

“Jin? Who’s this- oh!” Jin spun around when he heard a voice, only to see Floren standing in the doorway, wearing a long shirt that was absolutely covered in paint splatters. “This is your soulmate, right? Aww… You two cuties have been all over the news…”

Jin immediately felt a blush rise to his face. He had not been expecting that at all. He hadn’t even looked. Why would they even be all over the news, unless Floren looked specifically at gay news? Malos wasn’t a politician with a huge following and it wasn’t exactly news-worthy. “I- yes, this is Malos.”

“He’s pretty good looking.” Floren skipped closer, looking Malos up and down in a decidedly flirty way. Jin rolled his eyes. 

“Don’t start hitting on my soulmate, come on. Honestly, the sooner you find your soulmate, the safer the rest of the world will be from your charms.”

Floren laughed. “It’ll be a good trade off as long as they find me irresistible,” he said. Jin looked over at Malos, who’d looked for a moment like he was about to say something, but the moment passed, and Malos glanced back over at Jin before a light blush formed on his face. Jin could safely say that Malos had probably been thinking about him, then. 

“Where’s Sever? And Godfrey?” Changing the subject from flirting seemed like the safest option for now. 

“Sever is being moody in his room, Godfrey is out, doing...something.” Floren waved his hand dismissively. “I think he told me, but I can’t remember. Nothing important. Anyways, I should get back to my art. You two lovebirds have fun, let me know if you need some company…”

“Floren, no,” Jin laughed, mildly uncomfortable. “Malos is probably going home in a bit anyway. He was just dropping me back home.” He looked at Floren, who just smiled sweetly at them and left the room, though not before dropping them a wink.

Malos waited until Floren’s footsteps faded away down the stairs, then let out a rather nervous-sounding laugh. “Architect. He’s quite something, isn’t he? I would hate to be the poor guy or girl that he really sets his sights on. That level of flirting just kind of...stuns you.” 

“It did,” he said with a laugh. “I spent our whole relationship just tongue tied, honestly. He’s cute and all, but he made me almost unbearably shy. The novelty of it wore off a little after a while and he was pretty miffed when I tried to cut it off. All over now, though.”

Malos nodded, squeezing Jin’s hand in a sympathetic sort of way and then wandering over to his wardrobe and flinging open the doors. “Wow. You own a slightly alarming number of jumpers. Should I be concerned or impressed?”

“Impressed,” Jin said immediately, “seeing as I am a poor student. It takes a lot of dedication to wait for sales in shops to collect this many jumpers. Also, you like sleeping on my shoulder and they’re soft, so I’d be worried if you were concerned.”

“Fair enough.” Malos picked a soft, pale grey jumper out of the cupboard, handing it over to Jin. “I like this one. If you’re looking to change your clothes, I vote you change into this.”

“Did you just pick this because it’s just about the softest thing I own?” Jin laughed. “You can just say you want to cuddle, you know…”

“Always,” Malos said with a smile. “If it’s okay with you, I’d rather not go home just yet. That would involve me doing politics things, and right now I just want to hug you until I feel ready for dealing with all of this.”


	12. A Way Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jin and Malos have to talk to the leadership of Torna about what comes next.

While they were just sitting together on Jin’s bed, Malos on his phone and Jin leaning against him while reading his book, Malos’ phone buzzed with an email. That was pretty unusual, seeing as Malos only had a select few notifications turned on, so this must be important. Jin looked up at Malos, who was pulling a face. “Everything okay?” He asked.

“Probably,” Malos said. “Email from one of the main administrators of the party. He wants to meet with me, you, some investors, and some of the people who work on publicity and our manifesto to make a plan going forward.”

“A plan? That sounds alarmingly like they want you to change a whole bunch of things just because your soulmate happened to be male…” Jin sighed. “If you need to argue viciously with them, don’t spare them any savagery just because I’m around.”

“It’ll be fine,” he said with a shrug. “They probably just want to add some stuff to the marketing and work through some issues. It’s discussing stuff like if we want to make it part of our policy, and what kind of things we want to push for.”

“When do they want to meet?” He asked. He was willing to go, but he didn’t exactly see why he was needed. He wasn’t even a member of the party.

“Tomorrow morning,” Malos said with a sigh. “Infuriatingly early. So we had better get some sleep, and then I can drive us up there. If you’re sure that you want to come…”

“I do,” he said. “If only to provide support, honestly. Also, I know quite a lot about the dynamics of sexuality and gender activism groups, the kinds of things they want, and the ways that mainstream politicians react to that.”

“I’m dating such a nerd,” Malos said, rolling his eyes. “Can I sleep at your place? It’s, uh, later than I thought it was. And your bed is pretty comfy, considering you’re supposed to be a poor student.” He was clearly only teasing, but Jin prodded him in the side anyway. He made a very undignified squeaking sound, launching himself at Jin. The pair of them overbalanced when they made contact and both of them half fell off the bed, Malos practically pinning him down.

“Hot,” Jin said, but he was very aware that he did not want to have sex while his housemates were in. He heard enough of that from Floren’s room. “But if it’s late, maybe we should just go to sleep?” Malos grinned again and started tickling him. Jin let out an extremely un-masculine yelp, and then kicked Malos in the shin to make up for it.

“Ow! Fine, fine, I surrender. You can be brutal when you want to be…” Malos shook his head mock-disapprovingly. “You win, we can go to sleep.”

“Ack, sorry,” Jin said, taking the chance to move out from under Malos’ arms. He was now lying on his rather uncomfortable bedroom floor. “Did it hurt? I didn’t mean to kick you so hard.”

“You’re basically a shrimp,” Malos said with a shrug, still holding his shin. “It didn’t touch me at all.” He prodded the area to show he was fine, and then winced. “...ow.”

“What was that you were saying about me being weak?” Jin stood up, stripping off his jumper and flopping down onto the bed. Taking off the rest of his clothes would probably be better for sleeping, but he really couldn’t be bothered. Besides, Malos would probably try something, and sex was really not something he wanted right now. 

“Why are you so cute and hot at the same time?” Malos asked, pulling his shirt and tshirt off. Jin felt his face getting warm. Why, after literally having sex with Malos, did he still get flustered just by seeing his chest? Not to mention his abs. Architect.

“I could ask you the same question. Get your ass into this bed, come on.” Jin flung back the covers, patting the spot next to him. Malos considered it, then jumped into bed and landed so hard that the mattress springs creaked and groaned. “But maybe not like that.”

Malos laughed. “I mean, you did ask,” he said. “I guess I shouldn’t have overestimated the mattress. Sorry. I could get you a new one if I’ve broken it.”

“It’s probably fine,” Jin said. “And I’m not that poor, I swear. I do pretty well and I’ve been able to save money and such. You don’t need to offer to buy me loads of things, I promise, even if it’s a really nice gesture.”

“Whatever you say…” Malos rolled onto his side, wrapping Jin in his arms and pulling him close so that his back was pressed against Malos’ chest. “Even if you’re actually pretty strong, at least you’re still a little smaller than me. I can still have that little bit of superiority.”

“Somehow, I don’t think getting cuddled makes me inferior,” Jin said, happily letting Malos put his arms around him. This was so much more comfortable than last night, when it had been a little bit awkward. But all of that was gone now and Jin had honestly never been happier.

-

The next morning, Jin got to witness Malos making himself look presentable enough for a meeting with important politicians. It was a process that mostly seemed to involve him putting slightly more product in his hair than usual, and wearing a leather jacket that wasn’t quite as ratty as usual. After that was done, he drove, mostly in a clearly slightly nervous silence, to the place where this meeting was to be held.

Turns out, the infamous Torna didn’t meet in some shady backroom like they were portrayed as having. They met in a boring office building. Everyone inside looked pretty normal, though Jin imagined that the number of people with brightly coloured hair was significantly fewer in other parties.

Walking through the building, Jin noticed quite a few people staring at him, or at least shooting him funny looks as he passed. Having new people around here was clearly not a very common occurrence, unless it was just the fact that he was with Malos that was odd. He wondered how many people knew that they were soulmates. Probably all of them.

“We just have to go up a couple of floors to get to the seminar room,” Malos said. “Try not to be intimidated by them or anything. You’re here to advise and also to be informed; they’re not trying to lynch you or anything.”

“I’ll believe that when people stop looking at me like they’re going to fight me,” Jin muttered under his breath. Malos laughed.

“Don’t worry about that. That’s just how people around here look. You know what Torna stands for, everyone around here is angry.” Jin managed a halfhearted chuckle at that, but he was still very nervous. He was used to being around people who were angry about things, but he rarely felt like the anger was directed at him.

They got in the lift and went up a few floors, to a corridor that was a fair bit quieter than the entrance area they’d been in. “Seminar room is just through here,” Malos said. “We’re early, so there’ll only be a couple people there right now.”

“Right.” Well, at least Jin wouldn’t have to walk straight into a full meeting room. He hung back behind Malos a little, waiting for him to enter the meeting room before following. Thankfully, he was right about there not being too many people there yet. There was an older woman with bright pink hair as well as a man Jin vaguely recognised from the one speech of Malos’ he’d been to with Mikhail.

“Ah, good morning Malos!” The man said. “And this is Jin, yes?” Malos nodded, and Jin hung back a little. He wasn’t really familiar with this kind of thing. He knew all about meeting other activists, but official political stuff? He didn’t stand a chance.

“Hello,” he said cautiously, and hoped that that would be enough for now. Malos caught his hand, pulling him to a seat next to the head of the table. The one at the head was reserved for Malos himself, and he sat in it as if it suited him, like it was his throne. Jin had rarely seen him look so confident.

They sat in awkward near-silence for a while, all four of them hesitant to speak but too tense to stay completely silent. Gradually the room filled up, a stream of names and positions that Jin had no hope of remembering all in one go. It was pretty terrifying, but he was comforted by Malos’ ease. His soulmate was here, and he knew what he was doing, even if Jin didn’t have a damn clue. But he was a quick learner, and he was sure he would figure out this whole game of politics soon. At the very least, he would manage to learn a few people’s names.

A couple minutes past when they were supposed to start, Malos started speaking. “So, I was asked to come here with Jin here,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what’s on the agenda, but if you’re here to ask us to keep this out of party policy I’m not sure that’s possible.” That was a good start. Jin wasn’t really sure if he was supposed to say anything in response, but he nodded his head firmly in agreement and no one laughed at him or looked at him as though he had just done something wrong. 

“That was not one of the requests we were going to make,” the man who had been there when they entered said. “We were going to talk through approaches and possible policy. Obviously we should incorporate this, there’s a lot that can be said for being a pro-same sex relations party.”

“At the very least, it’s one of few things that could annoy mainstream politicians more than we already are,” a woman said. There was a definite friendly note to her tone, and Jin managed to relax a tad.

“Well, annoying the mainstream is what I live for.” Malos leaned forwards in his chair, lacing his fingers together. “If you want me to call a press conference and kiss my soulmate on national television, just say the word. I’d do it in a heartbeat, and I’m sure Jin would too, hmm?” He glanced back. 

“National television?” Jin imagined the looks on the news reporters’ faces. “Absolutely, yes.” The people around the table all laughed.

“I don’t think that would be necessary,” the woman with pink hair said. “Keeping it casual like you started it off as makes it all a lot more natural. We don’t want people to think it’s forced or staged, and if you provoke people incredibly publically then there’s a risk to your safety involved as well, which isn’t worth taking.”

“Trust me, nothing with Jin is forced…” Malos sat back in his chair, and Jin saw a distinctly fond smile on his face. That warmed his heart, seeing Malos say something so sweet and look so distinctly vulnerable in public.

“Evidently,” a man sitting at the table said. “The suggestion with showing this further is for you to continue as normal, perhaps posting a few things on social media to keep the enthusiasm ticking over,” he said. “Being visible in public but not obnoxious helps. We ran a background check on Jin, and obviously we know you can’t just give up your present activites, but it’s best if you don’t start plotting revolution or anything like that.”

“I wasn’t planning on taking down the government any time soon,” Jin said dryly. That got a few laughs from people around the table, and he felt rather proud of himself. “I’ll keep my activism on the down-low, I should probably spend more time focusing on my studies anyway.”

“I just feel you should be aware that people might choose to challenge your activities online and act as if you should be ashamed,” the man said, and Jin nodded. He received a fair amount of hate for his activism anyway, so anything extra probably wouldn’t be unusual.”

“The other question is what elements of new policy we introduce,” one woman said. “Malos can introduce debates into parliament if he wants to, and as a whole the party can promote certain issues to see if we can get the government to budge on it eventually.”

Jin looked at Malos, and Malos looked back at him. There was something rather obvious, but their relationship hadn’t been going on for long, and it might be a little awkward to bring up. Malos brought it up anyway. “I think we should start lobbying same-sex marriage to some degree. It fits with our overall aim of reducing the influence of Indol and their dogma in the country along with incorporating these new developments in our visibility.”

There was a murmur of assent around the table. “Other major efforts in the activist community include recognition of same sex soulmates in general as well as legally preventing discrimination and allowing for educating in schools,” Jin suggested. He had spent so long campaigning for this sort of thing- it felt almost unreal to be here with actual politicians listening to it and agreeing to it. All that was left now was for Indol to listen to them as well. But he had hope, now, more than ever before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate to be this person, but I have no idea how the previous chapter went bc we didn't get any comments. This is a really small ship and it gets a lot less attention than many other things I've worked on for this fandom but I love writing it, so it's super nice to get feedback.


	13. Speeches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malos makes his first speech after coming out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not dead ;) my co author and I are done with school for the year now so we're hoping that this'll get finished over the summer. Hype!

Over the next week or so, Jin found himself more involved in politics than he ever had been before. There was a difference, a real difference, between activism and actually, really sitting around tables and getting things done. It was almost demoralising, until Malos reminded him that activists made up most of Torna’s supporters. 

In addition to the politics, though, there was also a surprising amount of publicity. He had no idea how they’d gotten his phone number, but three newspapers had called Jin and asked to interview him. He’d refused, but only to say to go through something more official if they wanted a proper interview. He didn’t feel like being asked unprofessional questions in a casual environment or being caught off guard by something because he knew nothing about all of this.

He got to spend a lot of time with Malos, which was nice. Malos walked or drove over to his house pretty much every day and carted him and several books back to his place so Jin could work at Malos’. At the same time, they could work on politics-y things that needed their joint attention. And when they weren’t working, there was plenty of...other stuff that could occupy their time. Lots of things that Jin would never willingly speak to another about, except perhaps a close friend who was very good at keeping secrets. Not that he actually knew anyone like that. Malos was the closest he had to that, and they really hadn’t known each other for very long.

Honestly, before he met Malos, he’d been sort of pessimistic about soulmates. He’d never understood what the big deal was; while his other relationships had never been intended to be permanent, they certainly weren’t meaningless. The idea of a soulmate seemed almost cheap in comparison to forging a connection. But with Malos, it felt like the connection was already there, and it only grew stronger the more that they learned about each other. There was nothing that ever really came between them in any serious way- it was happiness all the way, as far as their personal life went. And anything that wasn’t part of their personal life could be worked out without their relationship ever suffering.

It was a while before Malos decided to move onto a couple more things with publicity. They’d been posting occasionally on social media, usually photos together or of stuff they did on a few dates, but no more than that. Jin hadn’t even posted that much on his own profiles, mostly because he was still sort of worried about how people would react to it when it wasn’t specifically in Malos’ space. Now, though, Jin felt like he wouldn’t mind them being seen together somewhere public. He was strong enough to take a bit of verbal abuse if that sort of thing was aimed at them, but if it wasn’t, that could only be good. Actually being together at an event was going to be a little scary, but it was the logical next step and Jin was ready for it.

It was going to be a public event, for people who got tickets free online only, in a fairly small venue on a Sunday afternoon. Very laid back, purposefully as casual as Malos could make his first speech on the party’s additions to its aims. And he wanted Jin to be there, for obvious reasons. Jin didn't really know what to do at these kinds of events or if he’d be doing anything at all, but supporting Malos in this was totally worth it. 

Still, that didn't stop him from being up late the night before, sitting on Malos’ bed as Malos read and re-read the speech he was going to give. Jin found himself feeling quite lucky that he didn't have to give his own speech to several hundred people- mostly young people, really, who in some ways were probably the scariest sort of person.

“Does that phrase sound okay?” Malos asked, repeating the closing few lines of his speech again. “I don’t know if it’s too exclusive. I guess this speech isn’t about expanding our audience, though, I don’t know.”

Jin thought about it for a moment. “I guess it’s more a statement about the party than the issues in general,” he said. “If you want to go for something more inclusive, maybe put it in when you’re talking about rights as a whole?”

“Yeah...that could work.” Malos stifled a yawn, wandering over and collapsing into bed next to Jin. “Ugh… We should get some sleep. I don’t want to keep you up any longer, and I know I can’t function on fewer than six hours of sleep.”

“You’ll feel less stressed once you’ve got some sleep,” Jin agreed. For such a seemingly level headed person, Malos got stressed surprisingly quickly and he didn't know how to deal with it at all. It was a wonder he’d managed without Jin, unless he just hadn’t taken it this seriously before he met him. This was quite the departure from the normal sort of angry speeches Malos did, so perhaps it was just the anxiety of trying something new. 

“Mhm.” Malos sighed. “Convince me it’s worth the effort to actually change out of these clothes, or else I’m going to sleep in my jeans. I’d say you have about one minute before I become one with these pillows.” 

“Jeans are too stiff to sleep in,” Jin said. “They’ll rub your legs and mine and it’ll be friction but without any sex. You lose on all fronts so you should probably just change your trousers.”

“Fiiiine,” Malos said, and Jin tried (and failed) not to stare as he followed Jin’s advice. Malos probably didn't mind that he was staring, and at this point he was way too tired to actually go for anything more active than cuddling. 

“Much better,” Jin said once Malos was in some more suitable nightwear. He patted the spot on the bed next to him, and Malos gratefully slumped down into it. “You’re going to be fine, you know. You’ve been on national television, and this is just going to be three hundred teenagers and twenty-somethings who probably already love you.” 

“I know,” he said with a sigh. “But it’s intimidating. Normally I’m all about hating other people, usually the establishment. But this speech is all about, well, supporting people. And allowing people to love. Honestly, it’s kind of weird that we’re campaigning on this. It’s out of place, but it’s a very rare positive thing we still have to work on.”

“And you’ll be fine.” Jin pulled the blankets up over them, far enough to cover Malos’ head until he popped back out looking vaguely indignant. “Now, get some sleep, future leader of the country. You can do this.” 

-

“So I’m just going to be sitting in the audience?” Jin said. He hadn’t really been expecting to be placed on the stage or anything, it was too dangerous, but he hadn’t really considered what he would be doing. 

“Yes. I might bring you up on stage after the speech, if it’s received well. If not, then you just make yourself look small and I’ll handle damage control.” Malos rested a hand on his arm. “We’ll be fine.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince Jin.

“You’ll do great,” Jin said, before heading out to take his seat, leaving Malos backstage. The hall was filling up already, mostly with very eager teens wearing varying amounts of rainbow accessories. That was sweet. The atmosphere was really friendly, more so than it had been at the last of Malos’ speeches Jin had been to, and it gave Jin a good feeling about how this was going to play out. He took his seat in the front row of the audience, in between two members of Malos’ security team who were dressed to blend in with the crowd. 

In the five minutes before the speech, the hall filled up completely. Mostly younger people, but it was encouraging to see that they weren’t the entire audience. When Malos finally emerged on stage, the cheer that went up was more akin to what you’d hear at a rock concert than at a political party’s event. Jin wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or slightly unnerved.

Malos took a deep breath, looked Jin straight in the eyes, and began speaking. Honestly, Jin missed most of the speech, completely lost in the power of Malos’ words and how amazing it was to see someone who was actually a recognisable figure speaking about all these things he’d been fighting about for years now. It was a far cry from the vaguely nervous way Malos had read it to him over and over the night before. It was amazing. Whatever he did to command the attention of so many people all at once, Jin was utterly mesmerised by it. And so was everyone else- the audience was dead silent; were it not for Malos’ voice, you could have heard a pin drop in this hall. Jin wondered how he had been so lucky as to have such a magnificent person as his soulmate. 

Malos finished speaking, and the whole hall erupted in applause and cheering. Malos looked so happy, and so relaxed, despite how wound up he’d been before. He was grinning, looking directly at Jin, and after a few moments he waved him up on stage. Jin didn't know whether to accept, because really this should be Malos’ moment, but now people were looking at him. It was daunting, but everyone here was so happy. He was sure it would be okay. He stepped up onto the stage, Malos already walking over to him to pull him into the centre. Before Jin really knew what was going on, he was being kissed, and he could see the flash of cameras going off all around him through half-closed eyelids. It was a little overwhelming, but at the same time, so exhilarating. This was real- this was the beginning of what he’d been fighting for for years, and it was brilliant.


	14. March

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Malos brings Jin into his world, it's only fair that Jin shows him a bit of his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter count has changed :) that's because this fic is now officially finished. Ch15 will be posted tomorrow with Ch16 posted on Saturday.

Of course, once Jin had been introduced into Malos’ world, the next step was to introduce Malos into Jin’s world. He was considerably more apprehensive about this than he had been even moments before his speech, and Jin could see why. The whole world seemed to be watching them now. In the two weeks since Malos’ speech, Jin had known fame and publicity like never before. His relationship had captured the attention of everyone from Indol to Tantal, and not a day had gone by where he hadn’t seen news articles, petitions, marches, all calling for one thing- change. 

After years of being told that they just had to wait for the right moment, suddenly it felt like the moment had come, and Jin wasn’t sure if he was incredibly ready or just...entirely unprepared. Sometimes it felt like both at the same time. He’d never even thought about what it would be like when they actually had huge amounts of worldwide support. He’d never imagined that the spark Malos had spoken about over two months ago now would be their relationship. It was incredible. 

And now, here he was, carefully painting rainbows on his soulmate’s face at eight in the morning. “Stop frowning,” he said, poking Malos’ nose with a paintbrush. “I know you’re worried, but do you have any idea how hard it is to paint between frown lines?” 

“It’s so bright,” he said. “Is that...is that a jar of glitter, Jin?”

“Yes,” Jin said with a grin. This was amazing. He needed a billion pictures of Malos in rainbow makeup. He looked so uncomfortable and outside of what he would normally wear. Even his clothes had actual colours today. “You don’t need to if you don’t want to, but I was going to put some on my face. Some people put it in their hair but I usually continue to find it in my underwear for about two years so I don’t do it anymore.”

Malos sighed. “If you’re doing it, then I might as well. Go for it, cover me in glitter.” Jin laughed, dipping his brush in some glue and painting another rainbow on Malos’ cheekbone. He patted a layer of glitter on top, leaning in to blow off the excess. 

“You look great,” he promised. “And today is going to be fine. I just need to do my face paint too, and then we can leave. I think Akhos is meeting us down there, and, well- since we’re leading the march, we can set off as soon as you’re ready.”

“That’s a tad daunting,” Malos said. “It’s safe, right? No one’s going to, I don’t know, throw stuff at us?”

“They probably will,” Jin said with a shrug. “I’ve been at the front of parades before and it can get pretty ugly, but usually there are police there too. I just...haven’t attended any since things started going wild, so the atmosphere might be different. And we will get shouted at, just to warn you, but I’m sure you’re expecting that.”

“Right.” Malos didn't look overly pleased with that, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. “My security team will be there, too, so we shouldn’t actually die.” Jin laughed, getting to his feet and crossing to the nearest mirror to start painting rainbows onto his own face. For someone so serious, Malos could be a right drama queen sometimes.

“Genuinely, it’ll be fine,” Jin said. “People love you. If anything happened to you, you’d immediately be a martyr, and that’s the last thing the conservatives want, so they’ll avoid it.”

“That’s not actually that comforting,” Malos said, and Jin could hear his grimace. “Also, they don’t just love me. They love you.”

“They like my soft gay hobo look,” Jin said with a grin, casting a glance away from his face and towards Malos. Even though he looked worried, he was still smiling. “Though today is more likely to be sweaty gay hobo. It’s going to be hot.”

“You’re hot,” Malos said, coming up behind him and resting his head on Jin’s shoulder. “If this actually goes well today, I’ll be surprised but very happy.”

 

“You’ll be exhausted,” Jin corrected him. “This is a long march, by the time we get home, you won’t be able to think of much else besides going straight to sleep.”

“Please make me take the makeup off first,” Malos said. “I will personally murder the person who made this makeup if I end up with rainbow stains on my sheets.”

“Malos, I have a rainbow blanket at home,” Jin said, but he did agree that makeup stains on pillow cases was the worst. They were so hard to get out and people just looked at you strangely if they saw you doing it, probably assuming that the stain was something a little more dubious.

“Well, I don’t want one. I’m happy with my blankets being black.” Malos straightened up, watching Jin work in the mirror. Jin took note of the slight smile on his face, and the way that just seeing that expression directed at him was enough to set a warm glow in his chest. 

“You’d be happy if everything was black,” Jin said. “Come on, help get some stuff ready. You could fill up a couple of water bottles. Don’t just stand around fretting about how it’ll go, it won’t make you feel any better.”

“Alright, alright, fine.” Malos went off to the kitchen, and Jin got back to work on his face. He’d done this a hundred times before, and he had a routine- a rainbow on the forehead, glitter on both cheeks, rainbow chalk to colour his hair if he had extra time. He did, today, and he was just applying the final streaks to his hair when Malos came back. “Oh architect, Jin, what did you do to your hair.”

“It’s fashion,” he said, sticking his tongue out at Malos. “I’d offer to do yours but it wouldn’t show and you’d complain about it anyway.”

“But now I can’t ruffle your hair because it’ll dislodge the chalk,” Malos said, and he was very clearly pouting. It was adorable and Jin just wanted to kiss him, but he had his hands full. He settled for patting Malos on the shoulder with one chalky hand, leaving a purple handprint on his shirt. “Hey!”

“It’s chalk, Malos, it just brushes off. Drama queen.” Jin laughed, going to the kitchen to check the bag Malos had packed. Water, some snacks, and a rainbow flag sticking out of the top. Perfect.

“I am not a drama queen,” Malos said, exaggerating his tone and then huffing. “I just have a flair for the dramatic.”

“Are you a repressed theatre gay?” Jin asked. “Because I can see you channeling whatever thing it is that Akhos and Mikhail do. It’s spooky. I dread the three of you being in the same place.”

“Shut up.” Malos smacked him lightly on the arm, and Jin snorted and smacked him back, hand still covered in chalk. “Let’s just go before you cover my entire outfit in chalk, shall we? I’ll take the bag.”

-

The atmosphere at the parade was intense, to say the least. There were possibly hundreds more people here right now than there had been in any other parade he’d been to in the last three years or so. It was amazing, and Jin felt like he was in the centre of it all with Malos at his side. Everyone wanted to talk to Malos. Some people wanted to talk to him. A few wanted to know about the cat, but Jin mostly ignored those people. 

They walked to the front of the parade, finding Akhos there, on his phone, and Mikhail, rubbing glitter into his hair. Neither of them looked up, so Jin cleared his throat, getting their attention. 

“Oh, hey, king of the gays is here.” Mikhail grinned. “When are we actually starting to march? I’m getting bored just standing around.”

“Well, we’re meant to start in five,” Malos said, looking at his phone. “I don’t wanna piss anyone off by starting early.”

“You won’t piss anyone off,” Mikhail said. “The police like it if we’re done and gone as soon as possible and all that. Means they can go back to their offices sooner, y’know?”

Malos grinned wickedly. “Let’s start on time, then,” he said, and Mikhail returned the grin. “So you’re Mikhail? Or Akhos?”

“Mikhail. Akhos is the one over there who’s still texting someone.” Mikhail leaned over, prodding him in the ribs. In a very typically Akhos way, that got almost no response. Jin laughed. 

“Akhos doesn’t like to be bothered when he’s in the middle of doing stuff,” Jin explained, his tone very much suggesting that he thought ‘stuff’ probably wasn’t all that important after all. And, in equally typical Akhos way, that comment got his attention.

“Hey. I wasn’t texting anyone, I was writing down an idea I had earlier. The world can’t miss out on my genius because I got distracted by your arrival.” Jin was never quite sure if Akhos was joking or not when he said things like that. Honestly, it could go either way.

“I feel attacked by your earlier comments,” Malos said. Jin just grinned at him, knowing he wouldn’t say any more than that. Malos wasn’t that much like Mikhail or Akhos, but there were definitely similarities. Mostly in how dramatic they all were.

“Let’s just start the parade,” Jin said loudly, cutting through any arguments that might be about to start. Mikhail and Akhos nodded, walking back a little way to pick up a large banner and lift it up. At that, the people in the rest of the parade quieted a little, and Jin motioned for Malos to start walking with him. He linked their hands together, holding on tightly as Mikhail and Akhos advanced a little so that the four of them were marching under the banner.

This was how it was meant to be. Large groups of them all marching as one, towards an aim that was finally looking like it was within reach. And if they kept marching, one day, they’d find everything they were looking for. Perhaps not for a while, but recently, Jin had hope that it might happen a little sooner than he’d thought. The events of the last few weeks were beyond his wildest dreams, and perhaps things would just keep on getting wilder.


	15. Proposal of one kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After several weeks, things start to move forward in a very real way.

After the march, at least after the bit where they went home and immediately slept for ten hours solid, things still kept moving. Jin felt like he saw his face in the news every day. Keeping up with his work for his masters degree was hard because of people recognising him, of trying to balance doing stuff with Malos, of checking how everything was progressing and attempting to keep on top of it. But at the same time, the excitement of it all meant that he started every day with so much happiness in his heart that he never got bogged down by endless research.

One evening, he was sitting next to Malos writing a report on the research he’d done in the last week, and Malos made a noise that was entirely uncharacteristic. He...squeaked. “Jin, there’s something I want to show you.” 

Jin looked up, now extremely interested. Anything that could get such a high-pitched, girlish sort of noise from Malos was more than worthy of his attention. “What is it?” He leaned over, trying to get a closer look at his screen.

“I don’t understand it all that well because of the legal jargon, but I think the title speaks for itself,” Malos said, scrolling up to the top of the document.

Jin’s heart leapt in his chest. In bold letters at the top of a very long document read the words ‘Proposal on reforming Tantalese marriage laws in preparation for the introduction of equal (same sex) marriage’. “It’s done?” He understood why Malos had made that noise now.

Malos nodded. “People are going to take another look through it, but it should be ready to present to parliament within the next two weeks.”

“That’s excellent news!” Of course, there was still the matter of actually getting everyone in parliament to vote in favour of it, but who knew, maybe that wouldn’t be too hard. With all the public support they’d been getting, at least some of it must have filtered up to the people in charge of the country. Or maybe they’d just feel pressured to pass it. Either way, this was huge.

“I’m nervous about presenting it,” Malos said. Architect, he sounded so happy. It was amazing. “But it’s also exciting. I’ve never actually made a proposal like this to parliament before, I usually just vote and occasionally add something to debates. Or I slam the government. I don’t know how they’ll respond to me actually trying to make a law.”

“Hopefully well. I mean, you can’t be the only one in the parliament who thinks that these laws are outdated. You just need to hope that you won’t be outvoted by the people sympathetic to Indol and the Praetorium.” Jin didn't even want to think about that happening. It would be crushing to get so far and then be stopped at the last moment.

“That’s a lot of people, to be fair,” Malos said. “Don’t get your hopes up for it going through the first time, legislation very rarely does, honestly. It could even get as far as the king and then he could veto it. We’re still only part of the way there, but this even existing is a huge step forwards.”

“We can do it,” Jin insisted. “We’ve moved things this far, we’re almost there.” It was a strange thing, to think that he was the cause of all of this change. Him and Malos, anyway. He was used to protesting, but Architect, it was nice to have it all mean something.

“I wouldn’t have done any of this without you,” Malos said, and his tone was a little more serious now. “I know that my party is based around being angry and all, but I was really angry at everything, and afraid of myself, and just generally afraid of what was going to happen, and I tried to lock all of that away with anger. You’ve changed everything for me, Jin.”

“I have?” Jin tried not to seem too surprised at that. He shifted closer to Malos, leaning his head against his shoulder. “You know, you’ve changed my life a fair bit too. I feel...more balanced now. I used to focus so much on activism and my studies, I had barely any time to actually think about myself. And you force me to do that, which is nice.”

“Are you really less focused on activism now than you were then?” Malos asked. Jin nodded. “It feels like that’s quite a lot of what we do together.”

“I used to organise events every other week. Marches, meetings, rallies, clubs, education stuff. I did everything. I kept up to date on current opinions both in the community and out of it. I stuck up posters, acted as escorts for people if they needed to go somewhere but felt unsafe...it was my whole life. I would be studying eight hours a day and then I’d spend all the rest of my time on activism.”

“Wow. Alright, I can see how you’ve toned it down a bit since then.” Malos wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and Jin smiled. Before this relationship, he’d been used to generally being taller and stronger than whoever he chose to date, but to be honest, it was nice to have someone who could make him feel safe for a change. 

“I loved it, but it was intense,” he said. “I think I probably would have burned out. I wasn’t taking care of myself, wasn’t getting enough sleep, and honestly I was probably constantly putting myself at risk. This stuff is sort of high risk, sure, but it’s not quite on the level of accompanying someone home at night because they’re worried about the police following them.” 

“You did that?” Malos frowned. “Did you ever get followed by the police? Or anyone worse than the police?” 

“Once.” Jin sighed. “There’s a small scar on my back where someone threw a glass bottle at the girl I was walking with, and I got in the way of it. That’s the only time I’ve ever actually been hurt, though. Usually it was just making sure someone got home without feeling too paranoid. Or maybe them not being there alone kept them out of that danger. I don’t know, and I’m glad I did it, but I’m also glad that I don’t do it so much anymore.”

Malos winced. “Thinking about you getting hurt is just…” He sighed. “I don’t want that to happen to you ever again. I want you to be safe, and I want to be able to protect you. But mostly I want all those people who would hurt you to stop.”

“They will stop one day. This is why your new law is so important- if it passes, it can help normalise people like us. It’s not everything that needs to be done to change people’s prejudices, but it’s a good start.”

Malos nodded, holding Jin even tighter. “If this doesn’t go through,” he said, “don’t let it get you down. We’ll just keep pushing until they say yes. They can’t stay in the dark ages, blindly following Indol forever. Public opinion moves on. Voter demographics change. Even if it doesn’t happen this month, or in six months, or even in a year, it will happen. I can promise that to you.”

“I love you,” Jin said warmly. It wasn’t something he often said out loud, but he felt like now was a good time. Malos was doing this for him, pushing for a change in the laws of a whole country just because he had asked. “I love you, so much.”

“I love you too,” Malos said. The tenderness and affection in his voice, even though it remained the same every time he said it, never failed to make Jin’s heart nearly burst with happiness. “I am so glad I met you and I can’t wait for the day that it’s safe for me to love you no matter where we are. Even if we’re standing on the Praetor’s fucking doorstep.”

“Some day, I want you to actually kiss me on the steps of the Praetorium,” Jin said with a smile. “I don’t care when, but I want that to happen. Just to say a big ‘fuck you’ to Amalthus, or whoever takes his place if he kicks the bucket before we get a chance to do it.”

“Honeymoon after we get married after getting this law passed,” Malos said with a wicked grin. “I can’t think of a bigger fuck you than that. Getting kicked out of Indol would be better than any cake topper.”

“I think I’d like to go somewhere we won’t get persecuted too,” Jin said with a small smile. “Maybe Leftheria, or Gormott. Where if we have sex in a field there won’t be anyone around for miles and miles to judge us.”

“I’ve never had sex in a field,” Malos mused, “but I doubt it’s very sanitary. Why don’t we just settle for a nice private house somewhere, then we can have sex as many times as we want, on as many pieces of furniture as we want, and there won’t be any dirt and grass to get in our way.”

“But Maloooooos,” he whined. “Think about the naturalism! The aesthetic memories of lying together in the grass in the sunlight! I don’t want making a house smell of sex to be our only accomplishment on our honeymoon.” Jin was ignoring right now how they’d skipped the part of asking each other about marriage and gone straight on to thinking about the honeymoon. Honestly, it felt so natural, he didn't even think he needed to process it too much.

“Hmm…” Malos just sighed, leaning his head against Jin’s. “Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Only if the field is definitely suitable for having sex in. Imagine the scandal if someone saw us.” Jin pulled a face. Malos was right- he really didn't want his naked butt plastered over tabloid newspapers.

“That’s why we’d do it in Gormott, a hundred miles from the nearest house,” Jin said. “Easy enough, right? Gormott only has about two settlements honestly.”

“Leftheria has beaches, though,” Malos said. “And the cloud ridge, which is really nice to watch. Only problem is it’s on one of the trade routes to Indol and they might give us a contact ban when we kiss in front of the Praetor.”

“Well, let’s cross that bridge when we come to it Or possibly burn that bridge when we come to it, if we get banned from Leftheria.” Jin rather hoped that didn't happen- he liked Leftheria. It was peaceful. “Either way, I think we’ve established that we’ll be having lots of sex on our honeymoon, which suits me just fine.” 

“I think we derailed the conversation a tad,” Malos said with a small laugh. Jin glanced at the clock; they’d spent ages talking and he hadn’t done the work he’d planned to, but it was worth it. Totally worth it. “But we’ve clearly established something very important.”

“I love you,” Jin said. It was the ease of their relationship that meant the conversation had drifted this way, after all. “And we should probably go to sleep at some point.”

“I love you too,” Malos said. “I agree, but I really wanna take a look at this document so I can pretend I understand at least one line of it when I have meetings on it this week.”

Jin edged over a little on the bed, putting his head on Malos’ shoulder. “I can support that,” he said. “Anything that gets us closer to saying the ultimate fuck you to Amalthus is good with me.”


	16. Proposal of a second kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the day of the vote on the law in parliament and Jin is nervous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if people are reading/liking this anymore :( getting no feedback is rather concerning but hey, it's done now! I hope you enjoy.

Three months later, and Jin couldn’t remember ever feeling so nervous in his life. He, along with several dozen news crews, were standing outside the parliament building and waiting for someone to come out and announce the result of the vote. The life-changing, historic vote that Jin had spent his entire adult life fighting for. He was terrified. 

The last three months had been a blur. He’d submitted all his work for his degree (still waiting on feedback, but the nervousness of that was nothing compared to this), had spent a lot of time with Malos, he’d moved out of his house and in with Malos...he’d done a lot of stuff. That didn't even take into account all the protesting, all the meetings, all the speeches he’d been to. The last three months had been a whirlwind of activity and just the need to keep pushing the issue until they reached this point.

Malos wasn’t optimistic, Jin knew. Only one party other than Torna had come out in flat out support of the bill, and the leading party had refused to condemn or condone, but there had been opinions on both sides. Hearing people debate what his rights should be was nerve-wracking. Hearing people insult Malos personally because of all this going on was even worse.

And it had all led to this. Standing here in front of a building, tuning out the sound of news crews chattering behind him, ignoring the people who were asking him for interviews. He didn't trust himself to speak on television now- not until he knew what the result was. He could hardly stand this waiting. 

There were hundreds of people standing out here, waiting. If the law wasn’t passed, Jin was pretty sure there was going to be some kind of riot, which was scary. He didn't know what Malos would want if it was rejected. He would certainly be angry, but rioting was another matter, even for a protest party. This was something Malos really wanted, and Jin knew that he was willing to sacrifice a few of his usual activities to give the bill a greater chance. No matter what happened today, some people were going to be angry. 

All of a sudden, a hush fell over the crowd. Jin looked up, worry pooling in his stomach as he heard the locks on the parliament door being pulled back one by one. Someone was coming out, which meant that the vote had been decided. Fuck. Fuck. 

It was Malos. Good sign. Except he also looked sort of shaky, which wasn’t a good sign, but he was smiling, Architect he was smiling and he wouldn’t be smiling if they’d rejected it, surely? The silence of the crowd burst into sharp murmuring. They wanted to know. He wanted to know. As soon as possible.

He wanted to jump over the barriers that had been put up in front of the doors, to run straight to Malos and get him to say what had happened. What was taking so long? Why was he walking so slowly, looking so nervous, not saying anything? It was so unlike Malos and it had Jin worried.

Malos walked through the barrier, crossing over to Jin and taking his hand. “The law passed,” he said quietly, and Jin swore his heart almost stopped. Malos was talking louder now, no doubt making the announcement to the rest of the crowd, but all Jin was focusing on right now was the relief that was making his head spin. After all these years, finally. 

“The vote passing in this way was close, and while we’ve been working in parliament for three months, this has been a much longer process than that,” Malos said. “Long before I ever allowed myself to get involved in anything like this, there have been groups in Tantal fighting for years, decades, to build up the environment needed for this to be able to happen.

“One of these groups, one of the countless protests that has occurred due to the vile laws made by conservatives who just couldn’t let others be, led me into this world in a way I didn't want at the time. I bumped into a man and responded rudely, and he retorted in a way you’d expect. That was a turning point for me, because that man was Jin, the man I’m proud to call my soulmate.” Jin’s heart was beating faster now, he was blushing, and he could feel people’s eyes on him.

“Months ago, he set me on this path, to a whole new group I’d never allowed myself to consider being a part of. I was so afraid of myself and what being gay could mean for my career, but Jin showed me that nothing, absolutely nothing, was worth more than being able to love someone and being loved in return.

“Because of that, I think there’s only one thing left to say. As much as I love being able to call Jin my soulmate and boyfriend, well, I’d like to be able to call Jin something else as well.” Jin felt like he was potentially going to faint. This was incredible. “Jin.” Malos turned to him, looked him in the eyes, smiled, reached into the pocket of his jacket, and got down on one knee. Oh Architect this was happening. “Would you do me the honor of being my husband?”

**Author's Note:**

> Well, it's over :) if you've enjoyed or not enjoyed, please leave a comment and let us know. This fic has been a lot of fun to write but it's nice to get some recognition of the amount of time and effort my writing partner and I put into these pieces. Also, there's more to come, so keep your eyes on the Xenoblade 2 category!


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